tihvavy  of  Che  'theoloojical  ^tminavf 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


v*y  vss." 


FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

REVEREND  CHARLES  ROSENBURY  ERDMAN 
D.D.,  LL.D. 


^51555 

.3  4b 


7fJ^-  ;^^,  oV/"-^-^ . 


Voices  from  Babylon; 


tCv  nr  r;«',-;7^ 


.THE    f     FEB  12  1952  _^  ; 

Records  of  Daniel  the  Prophet. 


BY 


JOSEPH  A.  SEISS,  D.D, 

Pastor  of  the  Church  of  The  Holy  Communion,  Phii^ada. 

AUTHOR  of 
'a  miracle  in  stone,"  "last  times,"  "  LECTURES  ON  THE  GOSPELS,"  ETa 


With  the  ancient  is  wisdom."— Job  xii.  12. 


PORTER    &    COATES 
PHILADELPHIA. 


Copyright,  1879,  by  PORTER  &  COATES. 


PREFACE. 


The  name  of  Babylon  stands  for  the  oldest  of 
earthly  cities  and  the  first  and  most  illustrious  of 
earthly  empires.  It  filled  a  large  place  in  the  early 
history  of  our  present  world,  and  possibly  may  fig- 
ure again  in  its  final  years.  According  to  its  na- 
tive etymology  {Bab-El),  it  means  The  Gate  of  God. 
Gates,  in  Oriental  times,  were  the  places  of  judg- 
ment. It  was  in  the  gates  that  authority  spoke, 
whence  the  laws  and  ordinances  were  given  out, 
and  where  causes  were  heard  and  decided.  As 
the  places  of  public  concourse,  they  were  also  used 
by  prophets  and  sages  for  the  delivery  of  their 
messages  to  the  people.  And  it  is  a  singular  fact 
that  the  great  prophetic  judgment  upon  the  succes- 
sion, career  and  final  termination  of  worldly  sove- 
reignty was  given  out  from  the  original  head  of 
world-empires,  and  from  a  primal  capital  whose 
very  name  denotes   The  Gate  of  God. 

Equally  striking  is  the  further  fact  that  the  holy 
prophet  through  whom  these  divine  decisions  and 
fore-announcements  were  made  was  not  only  an 
illustrious  sage  and  courtier  in  this  Gate  of  God, 
but  that  his  name  (Dan-i-El)  means  God's  Judge, 
Thus,  by  a  group  of  coincidences  which  could  hard- 
ly have    been    accidental,    we    have    God's  judge    in 


4  PREFA  CE. 

the  Gate  of  God  giving  forth  the  pre-deterniiiiatioiis 
and  decrees  of  God  with  regard  to  the  whole  course 
of  earthly  political  power. 

These  Voices  of  God  from  the  Gate  of  God, 
through  the  judge  of  God,  it  is  the  object  of  this 
book  to  describe.  The  intensity  of  their  interest  to 
our  day  and  generation,  when  fairly  and  fully  in- 
terpreted, cannot  well  be  exaggerated.  Daniel  is 
peculiarly  i\\Q  prophet  of  the  latter  days.  Augus- 
tine speaks  the  language  of  all  Christian  antiquity, 
as"  well  as  of  all  the  prophetic  foreshowings,  where 
he  says :  ^^  As  the  world  a2:)proaches  its  end  errors  w^ill 
increase  and  impiety  and  infidelity  will  abound ;'' 
and  Daniel  is  pre-eminently  the  man  of  God  to  in- 
struct and  stay  the  heart  of  faith  in  evil  times.  Such 
was  his  office  to  God's  erring  people  in  his  own  day ; 
such  was  the  effect  of  his  prophecies  in  the  period  of 
the  Seleucid  deceivers  and  oppressors;  and  such  his 
Book  is  meant  to  be  to  us  as  the  shadows  of  the 
coming  judgment  gather  upon  the  w^orld.  Nowhere 
does  the  Spirit  of  prophecy  and  miracle  stand  out 
more  illustriously  in  the  eyes  of  men  than  here. 
Nowhere  is  there  a  more  marvellous  demonstration 
to  mankind  of  tlie  power,  providence  and  presence 
of  God  in  human  affairs  than  in  this  Book.  By 
astounding  wonders,  themselves  luminous  with  celes- 
tial and  moral  teachings,  the  attention  is  drawn  to 
the  prophet's  utterances,  and  by  the  accurate  ful- 
filment of  his  predictions  through  the  entire  roll 
of  the  ages  since,  those  miracles  are  ever  more  and 
more  confirmed.      And   it  is  hard   to  conceive  what 


PREFACE.  O 

sort  of  divine  manifestations  could  be  better  adapt- 
ed to  encourage  and  establish  God's  people  in  these 
latter  days,  to  fortify  them  against  the  materialistic 
and  deceptive  philosophies  in  vogue,  to  nurture  that 
fulness  of  faith  which  alone  can  withstand  the  Anti- 
christian  storms  whose  tempestuous  darkness  is  al- 
ready thickening  around  us,  or  to  enable  suffering 
devotion  to  look  beyond  all  present  adversities  and 
perturbations  to  that  heavenly  light  and  eternal 
calm  ^vhich  kept  the  spirit  of  the  prophet,  and 
which  are  at  length  to  take  possession  of  this  af- 
flicted and  misruled  earth. 

Unfortunately,  however,  these  Voices  from  Baby- 
lon have  not  been  receiving  the  sort  of  attention  to 
which  they  are  entitled.  Modern  theology  in  gene- 
ral has  so  dwindled  and  sunk  away  from  the  original 
and  proper  faith  of  God's  Word  that  the  spirit  of  this 
Book  has  become  estranged  and  uncongenial,  if  not  of- 
fensive, to  it.  Criticism,  instead  of  endeavoring  to 
bring  out  its  sublime  teachings,  has  labored  rather  to 
encourage  unfounded  suspicions  of  its  genuineness, 
to  reduce  its  terms  and  imagery  into  conformity  with 
a  few  flat  and  self-invented  prepossessions,  or  to  de- 
plete it  by  way  of  apology  for  its  presence  in  the 
holy  Canon.  Even  when  taken  in  hand  by  earnest 
believers,  the  treatment  has  mostly  been  either  so 
superficial  and  partial  as  to  belittle  while  attempt- 
ing to  expound  and  exalt,  or  so  polemico-scholastic 
as  to  destroy  all  proper  exegesis,  or  so  very  deferen- 
tial to  the  shallow  rationalism  of  the  w^orshippers 
of  human  progress  as  to  stifle  the  very  soul    of  the 


6  PREFACE. 

prophet's  crowning  presentations.  What  the  world 
and  the  Church  need  with  regard  to  this  Book  is, 
that  it  be  released  and  emancipated  from  all  such 
imposed  clogs  and  fetters ;  that  the  great  Daniel  be 
made  to  speak  for  himself  in  the  majesty  of  his  own 
inspired  words ;  that  those  sublime  foreshowings 
vouchsafed  to  him  by  the  God  of  heaven  be  recalled 
and  restated  as  they  were,  and  were  meant  and  re- 
ceived at  the  beginning ;  and  that  the  invincible 
demonstrations  which  forced  their  way  to  victory 
over  the  pagan  soul  of  Nebuchadnezzar  be  let  forth 
again  in  all  their  divine  reality  upon  the  proud, 
skeptical  and  God-defying  spirit  of  this  evil  age. 

The  treatment  of  these  sacred  Voices  in  the  follow- 
ing Lectures  is  but  little  in  the  vein  of  most  of  the 
commentaries  and  treatises  on  the  subject.  Whilst 
the  best  and  worst  of  modern  criticism  and  exegesis 
on  Daniel  have  been  consulted,  and  much  of  real 
worth  has  thus  been  found  and  appropriated,  the  pur- 
pose has  rather  been  to  restate  the  contents  of  the 
Book  in  the  direct  import  of  its  own  terms,  and 
thus  to  revive  and  vindicate  the  older  and  truer 
conceptions  of  the  Church  with  regard  to  these 
magnificent  prophecies. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  all  doctrines  legiti- 
mately claiming  the  authority  of  Holy  Scripture 
must  ultimately  rest  on  the  grammar  of  the  lan- 
£>:uao^es  in  which  the  sacred  revelations  are  2:iven. 
What  is  against  the  laws  and  usages  of  those  lan- 
guages as  employed  by  the  Holy  Ghost  can  never 
be    the   true    meaning.      Grammatico-historieal    criti- 


PREFACE.  7 

cism  cannot  therefore  be  dispensed  with  in  ascertain- 
ing the  teachings  of  Biblical  writers.  All  right  in- 
terpretation of  the  divine  Word  is  unavoidably  bound 
to  it.  No  mere  theological  or  traditional  arguments 
are  competent  to  establish  an  article  of  faith,  or  to 
refute  w4iat  claims  to  be  one,  without  being  able  to 
ground  itself  clearly  upon  a  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord  " 
grammatically  determined.  Due  attention  has  ac- 
cordingly been  given  to  this  requirement,  and  a  new 
critical  translation  of  the  Book  of  Daniel,  embody- 
ing all  known  results  of  any  worth  in  that^  depart- 
ment, is  appended  to  these  Lectures. 

But  something  more,  and  of  equally  indispensable 
necessity  in  all  right  exposition  of  the  sacred  writings, 
is  required.  "  No  pi^ophecy  of  the  SGripture  is  of  any 
private  interpretation J^  2  Pet.  i.  20.  As  no  such 
prophecy  is  from  the  individual  will  or  wisdom  of 
the  writer,  so  neither  is  the  composition  in  which 
it  is  given  an  isolated  thing  to  be  treated  by  itself 
alone.  As  the  sacred  writers  were  all  moved  by 
**  the  same  Spirit,"  their  several  productions  are  only 
so  many  parts  of  one  organic  whole.  Though  each 
has  his  own  particular  standpoint,  surroundings  and 
objects,  which  must  never  be  lost  sight  of,  yet  no  in- 
dividual presentations  are  disconnected  from  what 
others  have  written  on  the  same  subject.  The  utter- 
ances of  one  dare  not  be  put  over  against  the  utter- 
ances of  another,  nor  the  one  be  exalted  to  the  de- 
preciation of  the  other;  but  all  must  be  taken  to- 
gether, as  equal  in  authority  and  dignity  and  as 
mutually  explanatory. 


8  PREFACE. 

There  is  also  a  correspondence,  analogy,  interior 
coherence  and  harmony  of  Scripture  with  Scripture 
as  to  the  substance  of  every  subject,  which,  if  once 
truly  reached  at  one  place,  evokes  a  common  re- 
sponse and  attestation  from  every  other  place,  and 
thus  begets  a  clearness  of  conviction  beyond  all 
that  the  most  elaborate  discussions  can  impart.  Nor 
can  any  interpretation  be  the  true  mind  of  the  Spir- 
it which  will  not  fairly  construe  with  the  analysis 
of  all  the  passages  relating  to  the  same  topic. 

It  is  upon  this  basis  and  method  of  ascertaining 
the  purport  of  God's  revelations,  rather  than  on 
mere  scaffoldings  of  individual  textual  criticism,  or 
on  any  artificial  system  of  theological  architecture, 
that  the  main  reliance  is  here  placed. 

The  critically-revised  translation  is  principally  the 
work  of  the  author's  friend  and  co-laborer,  Rev.  R. 
F.  Weidner,  a.  M.,  whose  special  studies  in  an- 
cient Oriental  languages  and  Biblical  criticism  well 
qualify  him  for  such  work.  That  he  has  done  good 
service  in  this  case  will  be  recognized  and  acknow- 
ledged by  all  competent  to  judge  of  such  matters. 
The  Index  to  the  w^hole  has  likewise  been  chiefly 
prepared  by  him. 

Thus  constructed  and  thus  completed,  this  book 
is  offered  to  the  public,  with  the  earnest  prayer  that 
it  may  be  blest  of  God  to  the  instruction  and  edifi- 
cation of  many  souls,  and  to  the  praise  and  glory 
of  His  own  great  and  ever-adorable  Name!. 

Philadelphia,  Epiphany  Season,  1879. 


CONTENTS 


LECTUKE    FIRST. 


THE  FORMING  PROPHET ;  OR,  DANIEL  IN  THE  ROYAL  COLLEGE. 

PAGE 

The  Book  of  Daniel  and  its  critics. —  Other  Daniels. —  The 
prophet's  early  history. —  His  natural  qualities. —  Selected 
for  service  in  the  palace. — Change  of  his  name. — Importance 
of  names. —  In  the  king's  college. —  The  king's  victuals. — 
Daniel's  high  principle. —  The  root  of  his  greatness. —  The 
modesty  of  his  spirit. — A  grand  example  for  young  men. — 
The  foundations  of  true  success 15-33 

LECTURE    SECOND. 

THE  VISION  OF  EMPIRE;  OR,  NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S  DREAM. 
The  scene  of  primeval  history. — Babylon's  beginning. — Nim- 
rod. — Names  of  succeeding  Babylonian  monarchs. —  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, his  conquests  and  his  greatness. —  His  public 
works. — His  dream  of  tlae  future  of  empire. — Plis  earnest- 
ness in  seeking  for  its  meaning, —  The  masters  of  Chaldean 
wisdom. —  Nebuchadnezzar's  severity  toward  them. —  In- 
competency of  man  without  divine  revelation. —  Unspeak- 
able worth  of  the  Bible 34-51 

LECTURE    THIRD. 

THE    SUCCESSION  OF    KINGDOMS;    OR,   THE    FOUR    GREAT    SOVE- 
REIGNTIES. 

Daniel  surprised. —  Engages  to  tell  and  explain  the  king's 
dream. — Resorts  to  prayer. —  Answers  the  king's  wishes. — 


10  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Treats  the  dream  as  from  God. —  Dreams  and  tokens. — Ne- 
buchadnezzar a  proper  organ  for  this  revelation. — The  mo- 
mentousness  of  the  disclosure. —  An  outline  of  all  political 
history. — Babylon. — Medo-Persia. — Macedonian  empire. — 
Kome. — A  constant  deterioration. —  All  actors  and  agencies 
work  out  God's  predictions. — History  not  accident. — Inspi- 
ration a  reality 52-73 

LECTUKE    FOUKTH. 

THE  FINAL  DOMINION;  OK,  THE  KINGDOM  OF  THE  STONE. 
All  worldly  empire  in  the  figure  of  a  man. — The  Roman  do- 
minion still  exists. —  To  be  followed  by  a  new  and  peculiar 
power. — A  real  outward  kingdom. —  Entirely  supernatural. 
—  Is  not  the  United  States. —  Is  not  Christianity  as  now  in 
the  world. — Christ  its  Head.— Christ  the  Stone  in  three  re- 
lations.— The  Stone  kingdom  now  forming. — Will  be  mani- 
fested only  in  the  judgment-time. — Prophecies  concerning 
it. — A  cavil  on  the  subject 74-95 

LECTURE    FIFTH. 

THE  GOLDEN  MEMORIAL  ;  OR,  NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S  GREAT  IMAGE. 

Nebuchadnezzar's  character. —  His  wisdom  as  a  king. —  His 
motive  in  setting  up  the  golden  image. —  A  memorial  of 
the  Jehovah-power. —  His  good  intentions  in  demanding 
homage  to  it. —  Awakened  no  scruples  in  the  Chaldeans. — 
Was  contrary  to  the  divine  law. —  The  trial  to  Shadrach, 
Meshach  and  Abednego. — Their  steadfastness.— The  king's 
anger. —  Their  miraculous  preservation  in  the  furnace  of 
fire. — Vindication  of  the  miracle. — Lessons  from  it 96-115 

LECTURE    SIXTH. 

THE    GREAT    MAN    HUMBLED;    OR,    THE    KING'S    INSANITY. 
An  ancient  state  paper. —  Omens  and  tokens. — A  second  pro- 
phetic dream  of  the  king. —  Daniel's  feeling  interpretation 
of  it. — The  cares  and  honors  of  the  world  adverse  to  piety. 
— Nebuchadnezzar's  grand  achievements. — His  self-glorify- 


CONTENTS.  11 

PAGE 

ing  pride. —  Is  overtaken  with  sudden  judgment. —  A  case 
akin  to  lycanthropy. —  The  sad  picture. —  The  recovery.— r 
Good  results  of  the  affliction. —  Was  Nebuchadnezzar  a 
converted  man? — Warning  against  pride 116-138 


LECTUKE    SEVENTH. 

THE  DOOM  OF  SACRILEGE;  OR,  BELSHAZZAR'S  FEAST. 
Who  Belshazzar  was. — His  character. — Nature  of  his  "  feast." 
—  Exceedingly  ill-timed. —  Sacrilegious  excesses  of. —  The 
writing  on  the  wall. —  Tiie  king's  terror. —  The  queen- 
mother. — Daniel  summoned. —  A  sermon  in  the  royal  ban- 
quet-hall.— Belshazzar's  end. — God  weighs  men. —  Is  spe- 
cially strict  with  those  in  power. — Hates  sensuality. — Holds 
accountable  for  warnings  neglected. — Belshazzar's  sacrilege 
in  modern  forms. — Admonition  from  his  example 139-160 

LECTURE    EIGHTH. 

THE    MEDO-PERSIAN    PRIME    MINISTER;     OR,    DANIEL'S    FAITH 
TESTED. 

The  change  of  government. —  Darius  the  Median. —  Selects 
Daniel  for  high  office. —  Malicious  envy  against  Daniel. — 
His  faultlessness. —  Malignity  the  more  inflamed  in  view 
of  his  impeccable  worth. —  Tiie  plot  to  destroy  him. —  Its 
flattering  hypocrisy. —  Daniel's  steadfastness. —  The  king's 
sorrow. — Daniel  cast  into  the  lions'  den. — His  miraculous 
preservation. —  There  is  a  righteous  and  merciful  God  at 
the  helm  of  things. — To  fear,  love  and  trust  Him  above  all 
things,  man's  highest  wisdom 161-182 

LECTURE    NINTH. 

THIS  WORLD'S  GOVERNMENTS;   OR,  THE   VISION   OF   THE   FOUR 
BEASTS. 

A  new  division  of  the  Book. —  Daniel's  dream  of  the  four 
monsters  from  the  agitated  sea. — World-power  viewed  from 
the  prophet's  stand-point. —  Babylon,  the  winged  Lion. — 
Medo-Persia,  the  Boar. —  Alexander's  dominion,  the  foui- 


12  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


headed  Leopard. —  Rome,  the  terrible  nondescript. —  The 
judgment. — Good  and  evil. — Coming  of  the  Son  of  man. — 
The  future  kingdom. — The  high  portion  of  the  saints..  183-205 

LECTURE    TENTH. 

THE    WORLD-POWERS    AND    ISRAEL;      OR,    THE    RAM,    HE-GOAT 
AND    LITTLE    HORN. 

Daniel's  second  vision. — The  same  powers  again. — Harmonies. 
Three  different  aspects  of  contemplation. —  The  world-pow- 
ers with  respect  to  the  Jewish  people. — Change  of  the  sym- 
bols.— Medo-Persia. —  Alexander  and  the  Jews. —  Division 
of  his  empire. —  The  Little  Horn. —  Antiochus  Epiphanes. 
— Duration  of  his  afflictions  of  Israel  — His  miserable  end. 
— The  type  of  another  oppressor  yet  to  come. — Instructions 
and  warnings  from  his  career  as  the  type  of  the  Antichrist. 
— The  Jewish  apostasies. —  Signs  of  similar  defections  in 
our  day. —  Effect  of  the  vision  on  Daniel. —  The  study  of 
prophecy 206-230 

LECTURE    ELEVENTH. 

THE  CHOSEN    PEOPLE'S    FORTUNES;    OR,  THE    SEVENTY    WEEKS. 

The  inner  life  of  the  prophet. —  His  devotions  intensified  by 
the  study  of  unfulfilled  prophecy. —  His  great  prayer. — 
God's  acceptance  of  it. —  Gabriel  sent  to  make  known  the 
truth.  —  The  prophecy  of  the  seventy  sevens.  —  Relates 
exclusively  to  the  fortunes  of  Israel. —  What  those  seventy 
sevens  were  to  bring.  —  Messiah  Prince. —  Years  from  the 
word  to  rebuild  Jerusalem  to  His  presentation  to  Israel. — 
How  cut  off. —  Results  of,  to  the  Jewish  people. —  The  final 
seven. — The  final  Antichrist. — Resume  of  the  contents  of 
this  chapter 231-256 

LECTURE    TWELFTH. 

THE  PICTURE  FILLED  IN ;    OR,  THE  VISION  OF  THE  HIDDEKEL, 
The  Greek  version  of  this  Book. — Questions  concerning  por- 
tions of  chapters  x.,  xi.  —  Attempts  to  expurgate  the  sacred 


CONTENTS.  13 

PAGE 

Books.—  No  vital  points  involved  in  omittina^  the  disputed 
paragraphs  in  these  chapters. —  Daniel's  great  fast. —  The  vis- 
ion which  followed  it. —  The  prophet's  suffering  from  the 
vision. —  The  costs  of  divine  revelations. —  Offices  and  do- 
ings of  the  angels. —  Conflicts  with  spiritual  Powers. — 
Succession  of  kings  in  Persia. —  The  riches  of  Xerxes. — 
Decadence  of  Persian  dominion  from  the  battles  of  Mar- 
athon and  Salamis. —  Alexander  and  his  en)pire. — ''The 
king  of  the  south"  and  "the  king  of  the  north." — God 
with  His  people. —  Angels  their  helpers. —  Tlie  vanity  of 
earthly  riches  and  glory 257-278 

LECTURE    THIRTEENTH. 

THE  REIGN  OF  THE  ANTICHRIST;  OR,  THE  WILFUL  KING. 
An  Antichrist  yet  to  come. —  Biblical  descriptions  of  him. — 
The  Christian  Fathers  on  the  subject. —  "  The  king." — The 
last  bestial  power  on  earth. —  An  individual  person. — 
Opinions  whence  he  shall  come. —  Wilfulness  his  great 
characteristic. —  His  self-exaltation  above  everything. — 
Patronizes  a  god. —  His  injustice  and  misrule. —  His  end. — 
Signs  pre-intimating  his  coming. —  Spirit  of  the  times. — 
"The  Coming  Man." — Mistaken  hopes 279-302 

LECTURE    FOURTEENTH. 

THE  FINAL  OUTCOME;  OR,  THE  GREAT  CONSUMMATION. 
False  impressions  touching  the  shutting  up  and  sealing  of 
these  visions. —  True  meaning  of  the  angel. —  The  time  of 
the  Antichrist  a  time  of  unprecedented  trouble. — The  Jews 
under  him. —  Duration  of  his  reign. —  The  standing  up  of 
Michael. — What  it  includes. — Ending  of  "  the  times  of  the 
Gentiles." — A  time  of  blessed  resurrections. — The  reign  of 
death. — Its  destruction. — The  eternal  rewards. — The  con- 
ditions on  which  they  depend 30^329 

A  Critically-revised  Translation 831-377 

List  of  Authors 379-383 

Index 385-391 


VOICES  FROM  BABYLOiN 


LECTURE   FIRST. 

The  Forming  Prophet;  or,  Daniel  in  the 
KoYAL  College. 

Daniel  1  : 1-21. 

IF  God  will,  I  propose  to  give  at  such  intervals  as 
may  be  convenient  a  course  of  somewhat  special 
Lectures  on  the  Booh  of  Daniel.  It  is  a  part  of  Holy 
Scripture,  perhaps  the  most  interesting  and  valuable 
of  all  the  prophetic  books — one  remarkably  well  suited 
for  the  determination  of  some  of  those  questions  which 
modern  skepticism  has  raised,  and  one  very  full  of 
just  such  truth  as  is  most  suitable  for  the  consid- 
eration of  men  in  our  day,  whether  believers  or  un- 
believers. 

Quite  a  number  of  the  brightest  lights  of  our  mod- 
ern world,  as  distinguished  for  their  erudition  as  thor- 
ough in  their  piety,  have  devoted  some  of  their 
best  efforts  to  the  study  of  this  Book,  and  given 
their  united  testimony  to  its  excellence,  its  instruct- 
iveness  and  its  value  as  a  clew  to  the  knowledge 
of  God's  purposes  and  dispensations  as  they  run 
through   the  whole  course  of   time.     Though   many 

15 


16  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

critics  have  arisen  who  have  brought  all  the  aj^pa- 
ratus  of  modern  learning,  and  much  "science  false- 
ly so  called,"  to  the  work  of  discrediting  it  as  the 
production  of  the  great  man  whom  it  claims  as  its 
author,  the  result  has  been  to  exhibit  with  aug- 
mented clearness,  and  to  establish  all  the  more  firm- 
ly, not  only  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  this 
Book,  bnt  the  certainty  of  its  inspiration,  the  im- 
portance of  it  in  the  canonical  record,  and  the  cen- 
tralness  of  its  place  in  the  revelations  of  God  to 
man.  "  Happily  for  the  present  age,"  says  Words- 
worth, '^the  shafts  of  a  skeptical  criticism,  which  a 
few  years  ago  were  discharged  in  a  volley  against 
the  Book  of  Daniel,  appear  now  to  be  almost  spent. 
Its  quiver  seems  to  be  empty.  The  attacks  made 
upon  this  Book  with  much  eagerness  and  activity 
have  stirred  up  able  champions  of  the  fiith,  and 
thus,  by  God's  providence  overruling  evil  for  good, 
the  assaults  of  unbelief  have  been  made  the  occa- 
sions and  means  of  strengthening  our  belief  in  the 
genuineness,  authenticity,  and  inspiration  of  the  Book 
of  Daniel,  and  have  secured  to  the  Church  those  spir- 
itual blessings  which  may  be  derived  from  a  careful 
study  of  it."  A  few  passages  may  have  crept  into 
the  text  on  which  some  reasonable  doubt  may  rest, 
but  the  limits  of  them  can  be  clearly  defined,  and  their 
elimination,  if  we  must  needs  let  them  go,  not  only 
does  not  touch  a  single  item  of  importance  in  the 
Book,  but  tends  to  set  out  in  far  more  intelligible- 
ness,  consistency,  conspicuity  and  elegance  the  grand 
and  noble  presentations  of  the  great  i)rophet-statesman 


THE  FORMING  PROPHET.  17 

of  Babylon  whose  name  it  bears.  With  all  that  an 
inimical  criticism  and  a  perverted  erudition  have  been 
able  to  accomplish,  we  may  still  take  up  the  exclama- 
tion of  Bishop  Newton  :  "  What  an  amazing  prophecy 
is  this,  comprehending  so  many  various  events,  and 
extending  through  so  many  successive  ages,  from  the 
establishment  of  the  Persian  empire,  upward  of  five 
hundred  years  before  Christ,  to  the  general  resurrec- 
tion !  What  stronger  and  more  convincing  proofs  can 
be  given  or  required  of  a  divine  providence  and  a 
divine  revelation,  that  there  is  a  God  who  directs  and 
orders  the  transactions  of  the  world,  and  that  Daniel 
was  a  prophet  inspired  by  Him !  No  one  could  thus 
declare  the  times  and  the  seasons  but  He  who  hath 
them  in  His  power.'^ 

And,  as  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  "  who  explored  the 
firmament  with  unwearied  wing,  and  made  an  apoc- 
alypse of  the  stars,  felt  that  he  was  sounding  a  great- 
er depth  and  rising  to  a  loftier  height  when  he  sat 
down,  a  patient  student  of  this  Book,  to  ascertain  the 
mind  and  make  plain  to  less  gifted  souls  the  meaning 
of  the  Spirit  of  God ''  which  herein  speaks,  it  surely 
cannot  be  beneath  us,  or  a  waste  of  time  and  energy, 
or  anything  less  than  a  pleasant  duty  and  a  high  priv- 
ilege, to  devote  ourselves  with  some  degree  of  special- 
ness  to  what  God  has  here  caused  to  be  written  for 
our  learning  upon  whom  the  ends  of  the  world  have 
come.  May  the  God  of  Daniel  guide  and  help  us  in 
the  attempt ! 

It  has  been  the  pleasure  of  a  certain  class  of  minds  to 
assume  that  we  know  almost  nothing  of  Daniel,  the  He- 

2 


18  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

brew  captive  and  exile,  to  wlioin  this  Book  is  ascribed. 
Tlie  evident  reason  has  been,  not  that  ample  records 
are  wanting,  but  that  the  admission  of  those  records 
carries  with  it  the  infallible  certainty  of  miracle,  in- 
spiration, and  prophecy,  of  which  many  would  like 
to  be  rid.  The  skeptical  Gibbon  enunciated  a  larger 
and  deeper  truth  than  he  was  perhaps  aware  of,  when, 
unable  to  see  any  escape  from  the  contemporary  evi- 
dence for  a  fact,  or  from  its  miraculousness  if  true,  he 
said,  "  The  stubborn  mind  of  an  infidel  is  guarded  by  a 
secret  incurable  suspicion.^'  And  it  is  this  "suspicion,'' 
incurable  save  by  the  subduing  influence  of  the  Holy 
Ghost — this  wilful  shutting  of  one's  self  up  against  un- 
welcome truth— this  foregone  conclusion  against  the 
possibility  of  miracles  and  inspired  prophecy — this 
exaltation  of  a  supercilious  rationalism  against  every- 
thing above  it — which  has  been  the  spring  of  all  the 
adverse  criticism  on  this  Book,  and  the  cause  of  the 
difficulty  in  finding  authentic  information  concerning 
"  Daniel  the  prophet."  The  truth  is,  that  we  know 
more  of  him  than  we  know  of  Adam,  Noah,  or  Job — 
as  much  as  we  know  of  Joseph,  Isaiah,  Ezekiel,  or 
Herod  the  Great — and  nearly  as  much  as  we  know 
of  Moses,  David,  St.  Paul,  or  Napoleon. 

There  are  three  Daniels  spoken  of  in  the  Scriptures 
— one,  a  son  of  David,  born  in  Hebron  of  Abigail  the 
Carmelitess,  referred  to  in  1  Chron.  iii.  1  ;  another,  a 
son  of  Ithamar,  who  went  up  with  Ezra  after  the 
Babylonish  captivity,  and  of  whom  we  read  in  Ezra 
viii.  2  and  Neli.  x.  6 ;  and  the  third,  the  great  Daniel, 
the  prophet  of  God,  who  lived  one  of  the  most  orig- 


THE  FORMING  PROPHET.  19 

inal  and  extraordinary  of  lives,  and  wrote  one  of  the 
most  important  and  remarkable  books  of  the  inspired 
Canon.  It  is  this  last  alone  with  whom  we  have  here 
to  do. 

This  Daniel  was  descended  from  one  of  the  highest 
Jewish  families  in  the  last  period  of  the  Hebrew  mon- 
archy. He  was  almost  certainly  of  royal  blood,  born 
at  Jerusalem  during  the  days  of  Jeremiah.  He  was 
among  the  captives  whom  Nebuchadnezzar,  then  at 
the  head  of  the  Babylonian  armies,  carried  away  from 
Judea  to  the  Chaldean  capital  on  the  Euphrates.  He 
was  then  a  boy  about  fourteen  years  of  age. 

Of  all  the  Jewish  youths  thus,  transported,  he  was 
tlie  foremost  in  every  quality  both  of  body  and  mind. 
He  was  without  blemish,  comely  in  person,  skilful  in 
wisdom,  cunning  in  knowledge,  quick  of  understanding, 
and  having  ability  in  him.  And  as  it  was  the  custom 
of  Oriental  monarchs  to  select  the  most  likely  of  their 
captives  taken  in  war  for  their  own  particular  service, 
DaniePs  royal  blood,  culture,  and  excellent  physical 
and  mental  recommendations  soon  pointed  him  out 
as  one  destined  so  to  be  employed.  The  better  to  fit 
him  for  the  king's  service,  he,  together  w^ith  three 
other  Hebrew  youths,  was  put  under  the  charge  of 
the  Babylonian  eunuchs  to  undergo  a  special  train- 
ing of  three  years. 

It  had  been  prophesied  by  Isaiah  to  Hezekiah : 
''Of  thy  sons  which  shall  issue  from  thee,  which  thou 
shalt  beget,  shall  they  take  away,  and  they  shall  be 
eunuchs  in  the  palace  of  the  king  of  Babylon."  Isa. 
xxxix.  7.     The  inference  is,  that  in  Daniel  this  pre- 


20  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

diction  was  fulfilled,  ils  Josephus  also  states,  and  that 
in  suffering  and  privation  he  was  formed  for  the  place 
in  which  he  became  so  conspicuous  and  notable. 

An  attempt  was  likewise  made  to  obliterate  his 
Judaic  prepossessions  and  opinions  by  assigning  to 
him  a  different  name.  It  has  been  observed  that 
while  the  king  of  Babylon  liked  DanieFs  pleasant 
face  and  scholarship,  he  did  not  like  his  religion.  As 
men  of  the  world  delight  in  the  erudition,  eloquence, 
and  attainments  of  Christian  ministers,  if  only  spared 
these  continual  appeals  to  conscience  and  the  everlast- 
ing urgency  of  the  Gospel  in  its  claims  to  the  practical 
mastery  of  the  heart  and  life,  so  the  king  of  Babylon 
would  gladly  avail  himself  of  DaniePs  science  and 
grace  if  he  could  only  separate  from  them  everything 
relating  to  Daniel's  God.  Daniel's  name  had  in  it  a 
reference  to  Jehovah,  as  also  the  names  of  his  three 
Jewish  comrades.  As  this  would  be  to  them  a  con- 
stant reminder  of  the  worship  of  their  fathers,  and 
Bomething  of  a  standing  protest  against  the  gods  and 
idolatries  of  the  Chaldeans,  it  was  anything  but  agree- 
able to  the  proud  court  of  Babylon.  Hence  other 
names  were  given  to  these  youths.  Daniel  means 
GocVs  judge ;  so  this  name  was  changed  to  Belteshaz- 
zar,  which  means  Befs  prmce,  or  he  whom  Bel,  the 
chief  god  of  Babylonian  worship,  favors  and  exalts. 
Hananiah  means  Jehovah^s  gift;  so  this  name  was 
changed  into  Shadrach,  which  means  the  kiiig^ s  friend. 
Mishael  means  the  incomparableness  of  God;  so  this 
was  changed  to  Ifeshach,  which  means  the  gentle  one, 
or  the  one  devoted  to  the  s^oddess  Shesach.     Azariah 


THE  FORMING  PROPHET.  21 

means  Jehovah  our  help  ;  so  this  was  changed  to  Abed- 
nego,  which  means  the  servant  of  the  star,  or  of  the 
god  Mercury.    In  other  words,  all  four  of  these  names  ' 
were  completely  heathenized  by  cutting  out  of  them 
all  references  to  the  God  of  Israel,  and  inserting  cor-  ; 
responding  references  to  the  idol  gods  of  Babylon. 

There  might  seem  to  be  but  little  in  a  name,  but 
it  is  not  a  matter  of  total  indifference.  A  fortunate 
or  unfortunate  name  may  have  an  important  effect 
on  the  history  of  him  who  bears  it.  The  very  sound 
of  the  designation  by  which  one  is  perpetually  called 
will  have  its  influence,  and  cannot  be  without  some 
moral  effect,  either  favorable  or  unfavorable.  Whole 
histories  and  vast  circles  of  ideas  are  often  treasured 
up  in  a  name ;  and  names  should  never  be  given 
without  consideration.  If  they  can  be  made  suo-o-es- 
tive  of  noble  principles,  examples,  or  memories,  so 
much  the  better.  Parents  may  be  shaping  the  des- 
tinies of  their  children  and  affecting  their  whole  life 
by  the  names  they  fix  upon  them.  In  the  vocabulary 
of  heaven  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  names  are 
the  significations  of  things.  God  wished  His  Son  to 
be  called  Jesus,  because  He  was  to  save  His  people 
from  their  sins.  And  when  the  court  of  Babylon 
wished  to  blot  out  from  these  Hebrew  youths  the 
memory  of  their  fathers  and  of  the  worship  of  the 
God  of  Israel,  the  very  first  thing  was  the  changing 
of  their  names  to  correspond  with  the  object  desired. 

But  the  expedient  in  this  case  did  not  succeed. 
Babylon  began  too  late  with  these  youths.  Their 
names   were   changed,    but   their   principles   did  not 


22  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

yield  to  the  enchantment.  Early  instructions  are  not 
so  easily  obliterated.  The  impressions  of  childhood 
are  always  tlie  most  lasting.  They  engrave  them- 
selves upon  the  whole  formation  of  the  man ;  they 
constitute  the  mould  of  one's  being.  They  may  be 
weakened  and  overlaid^  but  not  extinguished.  They 
are  like  words  spoken  in  a  whispering-gallery,  which 
may  not  be  heard  near  where  they  are  uttered,  but 
are  produced  in  far-distant  years  and  go  echoing 
along  the  remotest  paths  of  life.  A  child's  heart  is 
plastic,  and  the  form  to  which  it  is  once  set  is  the 
hardest  thing  in  the  world  to  change.  These  youths 
had  been  brought  up  in  the  knowledge  and  worship 
of  the  true  God,  and  had  been  taught  His  word  and 
law;  and  their  early  teachings  abode  with  them  and 
remained  proof  against  all  the  subtle  seductions  and 
expedients  of  a  heathen  court.  They  quietly  took 
the  new  names  assigned  them,  for  they  could  not 
help  themselves.  Those  names  were  indeed  lies  as 
applied  to  them,  but  they  were  obliged  to  submit,  as 
the  good  and  pious  of  every  age  have  had  to  bear 
the  ill  names  which  the  world  has  put  upon  them. 
It  is  not  possible  for  God's  people  to  escape  the  re- 
proaches of  the  wicked.  Paul  was  called  a  madman, 
and  Christ  himself  was  called  a  glutton,  a  wine- 
bibber,  and  a  devil.  Both  meekly  endured  it  in  the 
blessed  consciousness  of  its  utter  falsity.  And  so 
these  Hebrew  youths  took  the  base  cognomens  dic- 
tated by  their  heathen  conquerors,  but  under  those 
offensive  names  still  lurked  the  holy  teachings  of 
their  childhood.     Tyrants  might  change  their  names, 


THE  FORMING  PROPHET.  23 

but  their  hearts  remained  loyal  to  the  God  of  their 
fathers.  Teach  your  children  the  fear  of  the  Lord 
and  the  truths  of  revelation  from  their  earliest  in- 
fancy. Even  if  they  cannot  fully  understand  them, 
imbue  their  young  natures  with  them  ;  and  in  after 
years,  when  you  are  no  longer  present  to  direct,  they 
will  be  like  the  lodestone  to  the  mariner  in  navi- 
gating the  trackless  sea.  It  may  seem  like  casting 
your  seed  upon  the  waters,  but  some  of  it  will  find 
a  lodgment  where  it  will  grow  to  beautify  and  bless 
long  after  your  voice  has  become  silent  in  the  grave. 
It  was  not  long  before  a  test  occurred  to  prove 
how  firmly  rooted  in  their  hearts  were  the  sacred 
teachings  which  had  been  early  imprinted  upon  these 
youths.  The  more  to  draw  and  attach  them  to  their 
royal  conqueror,  the  king  appointed  them  a  daily 
provision  of  meat  from  the  royal  table  and  of  the 
wine  of  which  he  himself  drank.  It  was  a  mark 
of  most  particular  favor  and  condescension — a  regal 
generosity — intended  to  win  their  hearts  and  excite 
their  admiration,  gratitude,  and  affection  for  their 
master.  One  writer  thinks  it  was  as  much  as  to  say, 
"  If  you  will  become  priests  of  our  temple,  we  will 
give  you  an  endowment  from  the  state."  It  was 
at  least  a  token  of  gracious  preferment  to  impress 
them  with  an  idea  of  their  sovereign's  goodness,  and 
to  show  them  what  they  might  expect  by  loyally 
identifying  themselves  with  Babylon's  king  and 
Babylon's  institutions.  It  was  a  most  enticing  ap- 
peal to  the  ambition  of  these  young  men.  In  the 
king's  school,  chosen  for  the  king's  service,  and  fed 


24  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

and  feasted  from  the  king's  table  with  the  food  and 
drink  of  which  the  king  himself  partook,  it  would 
be  difficult  to  imagine  what  could  more  stir  and  in- 
flame the  aspirations  of  their  youthful  hearts.  What 
might  they  not  hope  when  thus  noticed  and  honored 
from  the  throne  ? 

But,  whilst  duly  sensible  and  appreciative  of  the 
royal  favor,  ''  Daniel  purposed  in  his  heart  that  he 
would  not  defile  himself  with  the  portion  of  the 
king's  meat,  nor  with  the  wine  which  he  drank." 
To  partake  of  these  royal  viands  was,  to  him,  contrary 
to  his  religion  and  his  conscience.  It  was  the  com- 
mon custom  among  the  heathen,  when  they  sat  down 
to  a  meal,  to  offer  or  dedicate  a  portion  of  the  pro- 
visions and  drink  to  the  gods.  In  the  place  of  our 
asking  a  blessing,  they  had  a  ceremony  of  acknow- 
ledgment or  dedication  to  their  household  deities. 
Paul  refers  to  this,  and,  on  the  ground  of  Christian 
principle,  forbids  participation  where  eatables  are 
thus  devoted  to  idols.  The  Jewish  law  was  still 
more  rigid,  and  strictly  prohibited  certain  classes 
of  food  altogether,  and  other  classes  also  if  not  pre- 
pared in  a  prescribed  way.  There  was  no  security, 
therefore,  that,  in  every  mouthful  he  might  take  of 
this  meat,  and  drink  from  the  table  of  the  king, 
Paniel  would  not  be  violating  the  laws  of  his  God. 
The  question  consequently  Avas,  whether  he  should 
consult  his  conscience  or  his  appetite  and  comfort — 
whether  or  not  he  should  let  his  religion  go  and 
accept  common  cause  with  idolaters  —  whether  he 
should  relinquish  fidelity  to  the  throne  of  his  Maker 


THE  FORMINO  PROPHET.  25 

or  risk  his  good  standing  with  the  king,  wlio  was 
disposed  to  favor  him.  Had  he  been  one  of  those 
easy-going  Christians  of  our  day  who  are  ready  to 
make  any  worldly  pleasure,  gain,  or  convenience  an 
ample  excuse  for  setting  aside  any  claims  or  duties 
of  religion,  we  should  never  have  heard  of  any 
scruple  on  the  subject ;  but  then  we  never  should 
have  had  the  illustrious  Daniel.  It  takes  sterner 
stuff  to  make  saints,  prophets,  and  holy  princes  than 
that  which  shuts  its  eyes  and  asks  no  questions,  and 
is  content  to  accommodate  itself  to  almost  any  thing; 
and  any  place.  Abraham^s  conscience  would  not  let 
him  stay  in  Ur,  though  his  going  out  would  lead 
him  he  knew  not  whither.  Moses'  conscience  would 
not  allow  him  to  accept  Egypt's  throne  and  riches, 
though  it  sent  him  an  exile  for  forty  years  in  the 
wilderness.  Paul  could  not  permit  himself  to  confer 
with  flesh  and  blood,  though  at  the  sacrifice  of  every- 
thing earthly.  And  any  one  who  would  be  a  true 
man  of  God  must  be  willing  to  risk  all,  and  even 
life  itself,  rather  than  go  against  conscience  and  the 
clear  will  of  Jehovah.  The  worldly-wise  may  call 
it  squeamishness,  and  sneer  at  it  as  a  straining  at 
gnats,  that  Daniel  resolved  not  to  defile  himself  with 
the  viands  of  the  king's  table  ;  but  it  was  the  great 
foundation-stone  of  all  his  greatness.  Principle  is 
never  small.  It  is  even  greater  when  exhibited  in 
little  things  than  in  matters  so  imposing  that  there 
is  scarcely  room  for  trial.  And  he  that  is  faithful 
in  little  is  thereby  also  faithful  in  much.  The  man 
who  has  no  regard  for  })ence  is  not  to  be  trusted  for 


26  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

pounds.  Our  own  history  has  shown  us  how^  a 
mighty  revolution  and  the  creation  of  a  great  and 
glorious  nationality  may  be  wrapped  up  in  a  box 
of  tea.  Daniel  took  his  stand  for  God,  conscience, 
and  righteousness  even  in  the  little  matter  of  his 
meat  and  drink,  and  thus  laid  the  groundwork  of 
a  character  which  passed  untarnished  and  unscathed 
through  seventy  years  of  political  life,  which  out- 
lived envy,  jealousy,  and  dynasties,  and  which  stands 
out  to  this  day  the  brightest  on  all  the  records  of 
humanity.  We  wonder  and  gaze  with  awe  upon 
him  as  we  contemplate  his  sublime  career. 

Elevated  from  his  early  youth  to  the  presidency 
over  all  the  colleges  of  Babylon's  wise  men,  then  to 
the  judge's  bench,  then  to  the  headship  of  all  the 
governors  of  an  all-conquering  empire,  and  holding 
his  place  amid  all  the  intrigues  indigenous  to  Oriental 
despotisms  through  three  successive  monarchies ;  hon- 
ored during  all  the  forty  years  of  Nebuchadnezzar's 
reiorn  ;  entrusted  with  the  kino^'s  business  under  the 
insolent  and  sensual  Belshazzar ;  acknowledged  by  the 
conquering  Medo-Persians ;  the  stay  and  protector  of 
his  people  under  every  administration  through  all  the 
dreary  years  of  their  long  exile;  dwelling  with  the 
great  in  the  most  dissolute  as  the  most  grand  and 
powerful  of  all  the  old  heathen  cities;  invulnerable 
to  the  jealousies  and  envies  of  plotting  satraps,  and 
maintaining  himself  unspotted  to  the  end  as  a  wor- 
shipper of  Jehovah  in  a  court  and  empire  made  up  of 
idolaters, — Daniel's  life  presents  an  embodied  epic  of 
faith  and  greatness,  and  exhibits  one  of  the  rarest  pic- 


THE  FORMING  PROPHET.  27 

tures  ever  shown  in  any  mere  man.  And  yet  the 
whole  of  it  had  its  root  and  beginning  in  his  youtliful 
resolve  not  to  defile  himself  with  the  portion  of  the 
king's  viands  ! 

Joseplius  resolves  the  whole  matter  into  the  wisdom 
of  a  vegetarian  diet  for  success  in  study.  But  Jose- 
phus  wTote  as  a  sycophant  and  a  craven.  He  knew 
better,  but  wished  to  avoid  reflections  upon  the  idol- 
atry of  the  emperors  and  people  whom  he  desired  to 
propitiate  and  please.  Had  he  possessed  a  spark  of 
Daniel's  devotion  and  honesty,  he  never  would  have 
perpetrated  such  an  absurdity.  The  question  was  not 
about  what  sort  of  diet  is  most  conducive  to  learning, 
but  about  the  requirements  and  commands  of  God 
^vith  res])ect  to  things  offered  to  idols  and  contrary  to 
tlie  Law.  It  was  not  a  question  about  vegetable  food 
or  of  total  abstinence  from  vinous  drinks,  but  one  of 
loyalty  to  his  Maker,  to  his  conscience,  and  to  the 
ordinances  of  Heaven.  It  was  not  a  question  of 
dietetics,  but  one  of  high  religious  principle  and  duty. 
Daniel  might  have  kept  himself  to  pulse  and  water  all 
his  days  and  never  been  more  of  a  man  than  Josephus 
was ;  but  he  had  learned  the  statutes  of  Jehovah,  and 
kept  himself  devoutly  to  them.  Hence  the  blessing 
of  his  humble  fare,  and  of  himself  in  the  use  of  it, 
which  turned  deficnencies  into  successes,  weaknesses 
into  power,  and  adversities  into  glorious  triumphs. 
It  is  not  meat  and  drink  that  make  men  prosperous, 
wise,  and  great.  It  is  not  the  eating  of  the  king's 
portion,  nor  abstinence  from  it,  but  solemn,  self-sac- 
rificing devotion  to  sacred  principle,  which  develops 


28  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

Daniels,   Haiiaiiiahs,   and    noble  masters   of   wisdom 
and  saints  of  God. 

But  it  was  not  in  offensive  self-assertion  that  these 
youths  declined  the  king's  viands.  An  obtrusive  piety 
is  never  of  God.  True  religion  is  always  courteous, 
modest,  and  anxious  to  avoid  unnecessary  collisions. 
With  all  its  inflexibility  it  is  always  amiable  and 
kind.  There  be  some  who  seem  to  think  they  cannot 
be  faithful  without  being  rude,  or  true  to  God  without 
harshness  toward  men.  But  here  we  have  all  the 
modesty  and  politeness  of  genuine  refinement,  and  all 
the  courtesy  of  an  accomplished  courtier,  with  all  the 
steadfastness  of  the  most  devoted  piety,  evincing  the 
genial  sincerity,  and  heralding  in  its  simplicity  the 
future  greatness  of  the  man.  Daniel  showed  no 
acerbed  temper.  He  did  not  fly  into  an  indignant 
passion  about  his  religion  and  his  God.  He  did  not 
break  out  in  declamation  against  Babylonian  ways 
and  idolatries.  He  did  not  feign  himself  insulted  by 
the  offers  of  his  king  because  they  did  not  harmonize 
with  his  views  and  feelings.  There  was  no  bravado, 
no  insolence,  no  defiance.  That  would  have  been  as 
wrong  as  to  eat  of  the  king's  meat.  It  would  not 
have  recommended  him  or  his  cause,  and  could  only 
have  made  matters  worse.  Therefore,  with  the  mod- 
esty of  a  true  man,  with  due  regard  to  the  situation, 
and  with  that  humility  of  spirit  which  considers  the 
rights  and  feelings  of  others  while  yet  faithful  to  prin- 
ciple, he  put  the  whole  thing  in  the  shape  of  mild  and 
gentle  request  that  he  and  his  three  friends  might  be 
permitted  to  live  on  pulse  and  water,  if  only  by  way 


THE  FORMING  PROPHET.  29 

of  experiment  for  ten  days.  And  such  entire  con- 
fidence had  he  in  God's  favor  to  those  who  honor  His 
statutes  that  he  cheerfully  stipulated  to  accept  what- 
ever should  be  judged  right  if  at  the  end  of  that  time 
he  and  his  friends  did  not  prove  as  fair  and  fat  in 
flesh  as  any  of  his  schoolfellows  who  had  no  scruples 
about  the  portion  of  the  king's  meat. 

In  all  these  particulars  we  behold  the  sound  and 
refined  religious  character  of  the  man,  and  the  putting 
forth  of  those  shoots  of  moral  stamina  which  made 
Daniel  one  of  the  noblest  and  most  successful  of 
men. 

And  what  an  illustrious  example  have  we  here  for 
the  imitation  of  all  young  men  !  You  have  been  in- 
dulging many  a  fond  and  anxious  dream  of  success, 
honor,  and  greatness  in  the  world.  You  would  like 
to  do  something  good  and  noble  for  yourself  and  for 
your  race.  You  are  often  absorbed  with  thinking 
over  plans,  movements,  and  methods  of  operation  by 
which  to  conciliate  the  favors  of  fortune,  to  reach  dis- 
tinguished positions  in  life,  and  to  leave  behind  you 
some  good  record  when  your  race  is  run.  If  it  is  not 
so,  I  would  not  give  much  for  your  prospects.  And 
as  you  think,  all  the  warmth  and  zeal  of  your  young 
nature  kindles  at  what  you  propose  to  accomplish  and 
make  of  yourself.  I  find  no  fault  with  this.  It  is 
all  right  enough,  and  what  becomes  youthful  years. 
I  would  have  you  think  with  all  seriousness,  make 
up  your  plan  of  life  with  the  deepest  fixedness  of 
purpose,  and  then  pursue  it  unswervingly  through 
thick  and  thin,  never  faltering  and  never  surrender- 


30  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

iiig.  Your  life  will  come  to  nothing  without  this. 
True  and  great  men  and  great  and  honorable  successes 
never  come  by  accident.  And  one  all-conditioning 
thing  in  a  successful  life  is  deep-rooted  and  inflexible 
devotion  to  correct  religious  princi^^le.  This  made 
the  Daniels,  the  Pauls,  the  Luthers,  and  the  Wash- 
ingtons  of  history.  He  who  leaves  out  of  his  plans 
and  purposes  an  honest  and  devout  regard  for  his 
soul,  his  God,  and  eternal  judgment,  leaves  out  the 
very  seed-grain  from  which  all  true  greatness  and  all 
real  success  grow.  You  may  not  like  such  sentiments. 
You  may  think  it  merely  professional  in  me  to  state 
them  as  I  do.  You  may  consider  it  manly  and  inde- 
pendent to  throw  oif  restraints  and  shackles  of  this 
cliaracter,  and  despise  them  as  only  in  your  way. 
But  let  me  tell  you  that  all  the  proper  success  and 
glory  of  your  life  is  wrapped  up  in  them.  You  make 
a  sad  and  deplorable  miss-shot  of  your  being  if  you 
propose  to  realize  your  golden  dreams  without  them. 
Tliere  is  no  right  life  in  merely  caring  for  this  dying 
body  and  pandering  to  its  appetites,  while  the  soul 
and  its  high  being  are  w^ilted  by  starvation  and  neglect. 
It  is  not  right  life  merely  to  till  the  earth,  and  cover 
its  hills  with  cattle,  and  make  its  fields  glad  with  har- 
vests, while  all  the  sublime  domain  of  the  immortal 
spirit  is  left  to  waste  and  desolation.  It  is  not  right 
life  merely  to  build  houses,  cities,  and  railways — to 
unchain  the  imprisoned  spirit  of  steam — to  dig  up 
metals  and  pound  them  into  shapes — while  the  moral 
nature  is  abandoned  to  chance  or  stagnation,  with  all 
its  nobler  treasures  neglected,  overlaid,  and  lost.     It 


THE  FORMING   PROPHET.  ^1 

is  not  right  life  merely  to  become  rich,  famous,  or 
even  learned,  if  the  momentous  things  of  God  and 
immortality  are  disregarded  or  despised.  What  mat- 
ters it  to  pass  with  sublimest  brilliancy  through  the 
few  years  of  stay  on  earth  if  it  must  end  in  an  eter- 
nity of  darkness  and  despair?  With  tremendous 
urgency,  and  for  ever,  rings  out  that  unsolved  ques- 
tion oif  the  Master  of  all  wisdom  :  "  What  shall  it 
profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  his 
own  soul  ?"  Better  fail  a  thousand  times,  and  fail  in 
everything  else,  than  attempt  to  shape  for  yourself  a 
life  without  God,  without  hope  in  Christ,  and  with- 
out an  interest  in  heaven.  No  one  can  afford  such 
an  experiment.  It  will  unmake  you  if  you  try  it.  It 
will  turn  your  life  into  nothingness  and  your  being 
into  an  ever-greatening  curse.  You  may  think  it  in- 
dependent, dignified,  and  noble,  but  you  can  no  more 
succeed  in  it  than  you  can  dwell  with  devouring  fire. 

What  young  men  generally  are  mostly  concerned 
about  is  capital.  They  think  if  they  only  had  capital 
they  would  accomplish  wonders.  And  so  they  can,  if 
the'word  be  taken  in  its  right  sense.  They  understand 
by  it  a  full  and  heavy  pocket,  but,  properly,  capital 
does  not  mean  balances  in  bank,  bonds,  and  letters 
of  credit.  Its  true  meaning  is  a  right  head.  If  you 
have  this,  you  are  prepared  for  the  business  of  life, 
and  equipped  to  make  the  most  of.it,  no  matter  about 
other  things.  If  only  the  head  is  right,  and  the  man 
'is  not  awry  or  wrong  in  his  upper  departments,  he  has 
capital,  and  may  be  sure  of  triumi)hant  successes. 
But  a  man  who  ignores  God  and  disregards  the  stat- 


32  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

iites  of  Deity  and  moral  right,  is  not  in  his  right  mind. 
He  mutilates  his  being ;  he  damages  his  manhood ;  he 
mars  the  nobility  of  his  nature ;  he  throws  out  of  gear 
his  intellectual  constitution ;  he  puts  from  him  that 
very  capital  out  of  which  alone  his  life  can  become  a 
success.  A  man  who  has  not  learned  to  know,  feel, 
and  obey  the  Truth,  who  fails  in  a  just  recognition  of 
his  Creator  and  his  Creator's  will,  who  lives  only  by 
veering  impulse,  without  a  settled  faith  and  aim  ad- 
justed to  the  verities  of  his  position  in  the  universe, 
can  by  no  possibility  have  reason  and  sanity  on  his 
side.  He  is  more  or  less  beside  himself.  His  head 
is  not  right.  He  is  in  measure  a  weakling,  an  imbe- 
cile, a  moral  cripple,  a  spiritual  dwarf,  disabled  from 
the  noblest  activities  of  a  proper  man ;  and  he  never 
can  be  great.  What  men  need  to  make  them  men  is  a 
firm  anchorage  on  God,  a  modest,  sincere  and  unflinch- 
ing adherence  to  the  laws  of  righteousness,  and  such  a 
devotion  as  would  at  any  time  rather  live  on  pulse  and 
water  with  a  good  conscience  than  to  sit  down  at  the 
table  of  the  king  with  a  debauched  soul.  With  such 
capital  it  matters  not  what  seeming  odds  may  be 
against  a  man.  The  laws  of  the  universe  are  in  his 
favor.  No  storms  or  revolutions  can  ever  wreck  his 
good  fortune.  The  throne  of  Heaven  stands  pledged 
to  keep  him  in  safety.  And  beyond  the  hills  wliich 
bound  our  present  horizon — beyond  the  stars  which 
look  down  so  lovingly  amid  these  anxious  night- 
watches — beyond  these  competitions,  doubts,  struggles, 
aches  and  ills,  when  this  world's  bloom  is  goi^e,  its 
pleasures  past,  its  fortunes  worthless,  its  cha})lets  with- 


THE  FORMING  PROPHET.  33 

ered,  its  joys  and  sorrows  over — there  still  remains  a 
realm  of  light,  beauty,  victory,  and  glory,  where  they 
that  have  sown  to  the  Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap 
life  everlasting. 


LECTURE   SECOND. 

The  Vision  of  Empire;  or,  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's Dream. 

Daniel  2 : 1-35. 

IT  is  well  worthy  of  notice  that  the  three  principal 
events  in  the  primeval  history  of  man  connect 
with  the  confluence  of  tw^o  rivers,  a  very  celebrated 
mountain  w^iich  those  rivers  drain,  and  a  very  cele- 
brated plain  which  those  rivers  water.  Where  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Tigris  join  is  where  Eden  bloom- 
ed, where  man  was  made,  and  where  his  dreadful  fall 
occurred.  The  mountains  from  wliich  they  descend 
include  Ararat,  where  the  Ark  of  Noah  lodged  when 
the  all-engulfing  flood  subsided.  The  plains  through 
which  they  meander  to  the  sea  are  the  plains  of  Shinar, 
Avhere  tlie  race  halted  in  its  first  migrations  after  leav- 
ing the  Ark,  where  the  great  defiant  tower  was  at- 
tempted to  be  built,  and  where  the  Lord  interposed  to 
confound  the  language  of  men  and  to  scatter  them 
abroad  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 

The  date  of  the  Flood  has  been  much  debated  and 
variously  represented.  But  if  we  take  the  mean  of 
the  two  reckonings  given  in  the  two  principal  versions 
of  the  ancient  Scriptures,  or  the  best  deductions  from 
the  historical  and  monumental  remains  of  the  various 
original  tribes  and  peoples,  or  the  indications  embodied 
;;4 


THE  VISION  OF  EMPIRE.  35 

in  the  Great  Pyramid  of  Gizeh,  by  each  of  these 
methods  we  are  brought  to  the  coocurrent  date  of 
two  thousand  eight  hundred  years  before  Christ,  or 
near  about  four  thousand  six  hundred  and  seventy- 
eight  years  ago.  It  was  in  the  sixth  generation  from 
Noah,  about  three  hundred  years  after  the  flood,  that 
the  great  dispersion  of  his  descendants  occurred,  for 
it  was  in  the  days  of  Peleg  that  "the  earth  was  di- 
vided." But  in  two  generations  earlier  than  Peleg 
we  already  read  of  the  city  and  kingdom  with  which 
the  history  of  Daniel  connects,  and  the  culmination  of 
which  was  represented  by  Nebuchadnezzar.  There  is 
no  older  known  city — no  older  known  kingdom — 
than  Babylon.  From  the  tenth  chapter  of  Genesis 
we  learn  that  Gush,  the  son  of  Ham,  begat  Nimrod ; 
that  "  he  began  to  be  a  mighty  one  in  the  earth ;"  that 
"  he  was  a  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord,"  whose 
doings  became  proverbial  in  all  after-time ;  and  that 
"  the  beginning  of  his  kingdom  was  Babel  \_Babylon'], 
and  Erech,  and  Accad,  and  Calneh,  in  the  land  of 
Shinar." 

The  name  and  fame  of  this  Nimrod,  under  whose 
administration  the  building  of  the  Great  Tower  was 
undertaken,  still  resound  all  over  the  Mesopotamian 
region  and  live  in  the  traditions  of  the  people  whose 
forefathers  deified  and  worshipped  him  as  a  god. 
Many  of  the  remarkable  mounds  and  ruins  of  that 
ancient  country  are  named  after  him.  The  ancient 
Chaldean  astronomers  placed  him  in  the  heavens  as 
the  constellation  of  Orion.  The  present  inhabitants 
of  the  regions  over  which  he  reii2:ned  never  mention 


36  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

his  name  but  with  reverence  and  awe.  And  up  to 
the  time  when  the  tenth  chapter  of  Genesis  was 
written  there  was  no  other  model  of  greatness  and 
dominion  to  which  mankind  were  so  accustomed  to 
refer  as  '^  Nimrod,  the  mighty  hunter  before  the 
Lord/' 

The  disaster  of  the  confusion  of  tongues,  while  it 
caused  the  leaving  off  of  the  building  of  the  city  for 
a  time,  did  not  destroy  the  kingdom  which  this  man 
founded.  The  names  of  not  less  than  twenty-six 
Babylonian  monarchs  have  been  exhumed  within  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century,  the  earliest  of  them  dating 
back  very  near  to  the  time  of  the  Dispersion  itself. 
From  these  recently-recovered  remains  it  now  ap- 
pears that  a  certain  Ismi-Dagon  was  on  the  Chal- 
dean throne  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty- 
one  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  and  that  he 
was  preceded  by  at  least  four  monarclis,  whose  names 
have  likewise  been  recovered.  The  oldest  of  these 
was  Urukh,  whose  kingdom  must  have  been  very 
great  and  his  reign  long,  for  his  name  is  upon  the 
foundation-bricks  of  the  greatest  buildings  in  some 
three  or  four  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  ancient 
cities  of  that  country.  Even  his  own  signet-cylinder 
has  been  found.  His  son  jT/^z  reigned  after  him,  and 
very  many  others  whose  names  have  been  discovered, 
indicating  the  existence  of  a  Babylonian  empire  ex- 
tending, in  one  form  or  another,  from  Nimrod  down 
to  Nabopolassar,  the  father  of  the  Nebuchadnezzar 
who  figures  so  largely  in  this  book  of  Daniel. 

Nebuchadnezzar  was  not  yet  properly  the  king  of 


THE   VISION  OF  EMPIRE.  37 

Babylon  at  the  time  of  the  taking  of  Jerusalem, 
when  the  Jews  were  carried  into  captivity.  In  the 
opening  of  the  account  Daniel  calls  him  "  king,''  but 
it  is  partly  by  anticipation,  as  he  became  sole  king 
at  the  death  of  his  father,  two  years  afterward,  and 
partly  because  he  was  at  that  time  something  of  a 
coregent  with  his  infirm  father,  having  been  assigned 
the  royal  charge  of  the  armies  which  he  so  victori- 
ously led.  Daniel  had  been  two  years  in  the  school 
of  the  eunuchs  when  Nabopolassar  died ;  and  it  was 
two  years  after  Nabopolassar's  death,  the  second  year 
of  Nebuchadnezzar's  sole  regency,  that  the  things; 
narrated  in  this  second  chapter  of  Daniel  occurred.^ 
The  second  year  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  sole  regency 
would  then  be  the  fourth  from  the  time  he  began 
to*  share  the  regal  administration,  thus  leaving  no 
room  for  the  difficulties  and  cavils  which  have  been 
raised  respecting  the  chronology  of  these  events. 

The  greatness  of  Babylon  and  of  tlie  Babylonian 
empire  is  attested  on  all  hands.  This  chapter  treats 
of  it,  not  only  as  the  very  head  of  all  the  great 
world-powers,  but  as  a  head  of  gold,  to  which  other 
empires  are  only  as  silver,  brass,  iron,  and  clay. 
For  a  period  prior  to  Nabopolassar  it  was  a  trib- 
utary to  the  Assyrian  kingdom,  wliich  had  its  seat 
at  Nineveh,  Nabopolassar  being  at  first  only  a  sub- 
king  of  that  dominion.  But  he  instituted  a  rebel- 
lion, in  which,  by  the  co-operation  of  the  Medes,  he 
succeeded,  made  the  grave  of  the  great  and  glorious 
city  of  Nineveh,  and  annexed  the  Assyrian  empire 
to  Babylon,  to  which  it  had  of  old  belonged.     The 


38  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

triumphant  expeditions  of  his  son  extended  tlie 
Babylonian  dominions  still  farther,  even  to  the  ut- 
most bounds  of  the  earth.  When  Edom  and  Moab 
and  Ammon  and  Tyre  and  Zidon  sought  to  concert 
with  the  king  of  the  Jews  against  Nebuchadnezzar, 
God,  by  His  prophet  Jeremiah,  pronounced  all  such 
efforts  vain.  "  I  have  made  the  earth,''  said  He, 
"  the  man  and  the  beast  that  are  upon  the  ground, 
by  my  great  power  and  by  my  outstretched  arm,  and 
have  given  it  unto  whom  it  seemed  good  unto  me. 
And  now  I  have  given  all  these  lands  into  the  hands 
of  Nebuchadnezzar  the  king  of  Babylon,  my  ser- 
vant ;  and  the  beasts  of  the  field  have  I  given  him 
also  to  serve  him.  And  all  nations  shall  serve  him, 
and  his  son,  and  his  son's  son,  until  the  very  time 
of  his  land  come;  and  then  many  nations  and  great 
kings  shall  serve  themselves  of  him.  And  it  shall 
come  to  pass  that  the  nation  and  kingdom  which 
will  not  serve  the  same  Nebuchadnezzar  the  king 
of  Babylon,  and  that  will  not  put  their  neck  under 
the  yoke  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  that  nation  will 
I  punish,  saith  the  Lord,  with  the  sword,  and  with 
famine,  and  with  pestilence,  until  I  have  consumed 
them  by  his  hand."  Jer.  xxvii.  4-8.  All  the  na- 
tions to  which  Israel  might  look  for  help,  including 
Egypt,  are  embraced  in  this  description  ;  but  Arabia, 
Kedar,  and  Hazor  did  not  lie  too  deep  away  to  be 
also  reached  by  Nebuchadnezzar's  victorious  armies. 
The  Indian  histories  tell  of  his  power  and  successes 
eastward.  Libya  and  Iberia  were  subdued  by  him. 
When   Ezekiel   pronounces  the  destruction  of  Egypt, 


THE  VISIOJS   OF  EMPIRE.  39 

he  tells  Pliaraoli  that  he  will  meet  in  the  grave 
"Asshur,  and  all  her  company;  Elam,  and  all  her 
multitude;  Meshech,  Tubal,  and  all  her  multitude; 
Edom,  her  kings  and  all  her  princes  ;  the  princes 
of  the  north,  all  of  them  ;  and  all  the  Zidonians, 
fallen  by  the  sword'' — the  sword  of  this  same  re- 
sistless power.  The  conquest  of  Tyre  and  Zidon 
naturally  also  involved  the  Phoenician  colonies  in 
Africa  and  Spain ;  so  that  Philostratus  declares  Neb- 
uchadnezzar's dominion  ^'' advanced  to  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules."  He  subdued  Egypt,  and  set  up  over  it 
a  king  subject  to  himself.  Meshech,  and  Tubal,  and 
all  they  of  the  north  quarters,  and  their  bands,  are 
mentioned  among  the  peoples  brought  under  him, 
which  would  extend  his  dominion  to  the  Caucasian 
Mountains,  over  the  countries  around  the  Black  Sea, 
the  Sea  of  Azof,  and  the  valleys  of  the  Don  and  the 
Dnieper,  including  much  of  the  present  empires  of 
Russia  and  European  Turkey. 

The  enormous  public  works  which  he  wrought  suf- 
ficiently corroborate  these  accounts  of  his  victories, 
resources,  and  vast  dominion.  He  adorned  and  ex- 
alted Babylon  with  a  magnificence  befitting  the  me- 
tropolis of  so  mighty  an  empire.  He  built  an  enclo- 
sure around  it  so  thick  and  high  as  to  embody  more 
solid  masonry  than  the  Chinese  Wall.  It  took  in 
not  less  than  one  hundred  and  thirty  square  miles. 
Through  this  wall  were  one  hundred  ])assage-ways,  se- 
cured by  ponderous  gates  of  solid  brass.  Inside  these 
walls  were  two  palaces,  themselves  very  wildernesses 
of  architectural   magnificence  and  artistic  adornment, 


40  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

besides  the  famous  artificial  mountains  and  mighty 
temples,  the  mere  ruins  of  which  have  left  piles  still 
one  hundred  and  forty  feet  in  height.  Near  to  this 
city  he  made  a  reservoir  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
miles  in  circumference  and  twenty  fathoms  deep, 
into  which  to  drain  oif  the  river  and  retain  its  waters. 
He  lined  the  Persian  Gulf  with  great  breakwaters 
against  the  irruptions  of  the  sea.  He  cut  various 
navigable  canals,  one  of  which  remains  to  this  day 
and  is  still  called  the  '^  King's  River.''  He  walled 
up  the  sides  of  the  Euphrates  all  along  its  course  to 
the  sea,  casting  up  enormous  embankments,  some  of 
which  exist  to  this  present.  And  all  the  great  cities 
of  Upper  Babylonia  he  rebuilt,  adorned  with  magnif- 
icent temples,  and  exalted  with  works  which  still  tell 
of  him  to  the  antiquarian  and  explorer. 

Having  made  all  these  mighty  conquests,  become 
invested  with  the  sole  authority  over  the  great  empire 
of  Babylon,  and  settled  down  now  as  the  sublime 
lord  of  all  this  realm,  riches,  power  and  glory,  Neb- 
ucliadnezzar  began  to  think  over  his  affairs.  Being  a 
man  of  breadth  and  seriousness  of  intellect,  he  was  led 
to  consider  very  profoundly  the  situation  of  things 
and  to  wonder  about  the  end  of  all  this  magnificence, 
how  he  got  it,  what  was  involved  in  it,  and  what  was 
to  be  the  future  history  and  outcome.  He  was  yet 
young.  All  the  known  world  was  at  his  feet  and 
subject  to  his  will.  He  had  been  wonderfully  suc- 
cessful and  had  reached  very  dizzy  heights.  Glory 
and  dominion  unparalleled  were  his.  What  was  he 
to  do  with  it?     To  what  landing  was  this  proud  ship 


THE  VISION  OF  EMPIRE.  4  J 

of  state  to  come  when  once  his  little  span  of  life  was 
measured?  What  was  to  be  in  the  hereafter?  These 
were  the  "thoughts''  that  came  upon  him.  They 
came  up  even  into  his  bed.  His  very  sleep  was 
disturbed  as  he  thus  contemplated  the  unknown 
and  inscrutable  Beyond. 

We  are  not  informed  whether  there  was  anything 
in  all  this  akin  to  the  experience  of  King  Richard 
III.,  of  which   Shakespeare  makes   him  say — 

"  Metliought  the  souls  of  all  that  I  had  murdered 
Came  to  my  tent ;  and  every  one  did  threat 
To-morrow's  vengeance  on  the  head  of  Eichard." 

But  it  could  hardly  be  much  otherwise.  We  may  be 
sure,  at  least,  that  these  invading  ^' thoughts'^  had 
reference  to  the  security  and  destiny  of  himself  and 
his  throne,  including  all  the  mysterious  implications 
besetting  such  an  administration.  Out  of  these 
"  thoughts "  God  also  framed  for  him  a  dream-pic- 
ture of  the  whole  matter,  which  disturbed  him  yet 
the  more  when  the  morrow  came,  even  though  he 
could  not  remember  so  as  to  describe  it. 

A  bright  and  mighty  image  stood  before  him  with 
the  outlines  and  lineaments  of  a  man.  The  form  of 
it  was  lustrous  and  terrible.  The  head  of  it  was 
glittering  with  gold.  The  breast  and  arms  were 
shining  silver.  The  chest  and  thighs  were  glowing 
brass.  The  legs  were  pillars  of  ircm.  And  the  feet 
and  toes  were  mingled  iron  and  clay.  A  mystic 
stone,  self  moved,  rolled  down  from  the  mountain 
and  struck   the  image  on   its  feet,  breaking  them  to 


42  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

pieces  and  grinding  the  whole  image  to  dust,  which 
the  winds  blew  away,  while  the  stone  developed  into 
a  great  mountain  and  filled  the  whole  earth  !  It  was 
the  image  of  worldly  empire,  from  its  beginning, 
through  all  its  varying  fortunes,  down  to  the  end  of 
time,  and  of  the  supernal  power  which  is  then  to  sup- 
plant it.  The  king  could  not  describe  the  vision 
when  he  awoke.  It  went  from  him  with  his  recov- 
ering consciousness,  as  it  had  framed  itself  to  his 
thoughts  when  he  uneasily  sank  into  those  slum- 
bers. But  the  awfulness  of  it  was  upon  his  soul. 
It  was  such  a  strange  and  overpowering  interming- 
ling with  his  thinking,  and  seemed  so  evidently  a 
supernatural  answer  to  his  questions,  that  it  stirred 
him  profoundly.  If  in  the  power  of  man  to  recall 
that  vision,  he  determined  that  it  should  be  recalled 
and  its  meaning  ascertained.  Nor  was  it  mere 
curiosity,  but  sober  seriousness,  which  moved  his 
anxiety. 

Nor  can  I  but  admire  the  earnestness  of  this  man 
in  this  matter.  It  is  just  what  ought  to  press  most 
urgently  upon  the  heart  and  conscience  of  every  young- 
man  as  he  moves  out  into  the  cares  and  responsibil- 
ities of  life.  Especially  if  our  efforts  have  brought 
us  great  successes,  honors,  greatness  and  power,  it 
sliould  much  occupy  our  thinking  to  know  where  we 
are,  how  it  is  likely  to  go  with  us,  what  rocks  and 
quicksands  may  be  encountered  in  our  voyage,  what 
precipices  and  dangers  may  be  before  us,  how  best  to 
secure  what  is  made  dependent  upon  our  will,  and 
how  to  steer  that  thine^s   mav  have  an   honorable  and 


THE  VISION  OF  EMPIRE.  43 

happy  outcome.  It  belongs  to  every  one's  proper 
manhood  to  exercise  himself  well  in  this  very  way, 
and  to  be  earnestly  anxious  in  tliis  very  line.  Many 
are  born  into  this  world,  and  live  through  it,  and  die 
out  of  it,  and  even  take  prominent  part  in  its  affairs, 
who  never  seem  to  become  conscious  of  themselves,  or 
to  think  whence  they  came,  what  they  are,  or  what  is 
to  come  of  them  or  the  things  on  which  they  are 
spending  their  energies.  And  though  God  comes  to 
them  with  many  a  brilliant  vision,  many  an  imposing 
dream,  and  many  a  word  of  useful  information,  they 
let  it  go  as  if  it  concerned  them  not.  Eternal  Wis- 
dom condescends  to  put  the  sublimest  teachings  with- 
in their  reach,  but  they  care  not  to  know  what  they 
are  or  what  is  to  be  in  the  future.  Let  this  heathen 
king  rebuke  and  shame  their  brutishness.  ]^ot  all 
his  honors,  greatness  and  power  could  divert  him 
from  solemn  thought  of  what  was  to  come.  Upon 
his  royal  couch  he  seriously  moralizes  and  thinks. 
He  reasons  and  wonders  and  inquires  about  the  end. 
And  when  sensible  of  some  mysterious  tokens  from 
the  Deity,  he  will  not  rest  till  he  learns  the  import  of 
the  vouchsafed  revelation.  All  the  masters  of  sacred 
wisdom  are  sunimoned  to  help  him  to  an  understand- 
ing of  the  heavenly  intimations.  It  was  noble  in 
him,  and  evinced  the  seriousness  and  dignity  of  a  true 
man,  who  will  rise  up  in  the  judgment  and  condemn 
those  who  never  cast  a  thought  upon  the  solemnities 
of  life  or  care  to  learn  what  God  has  vouchsafed  for 
their  guidance  to  a  happy  destiny.  Very  incompe- 
tent,  however,   were    the    helpers  to  whom  the  kino; 


44  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

betook  himself  for  the  recovery  and  explanation  of 
his  dream. 

It  was  the  custom  of  ancient  monarchs  to  gather 
around  them  the  best  representatives  of  science  and 
learning  that  could  be  found.  It  helped  to  dignify 
their  thrones.  Babylon  especially  had  her  orders  of 
wise  men,  priests,  and  hierophants,  supported  by  the 
state  and  held  in  the  highest  honor.  The  history  be- 
fore us  calls  them  ^Hhe  magicians,  and  the  astrologers, 
and  the  sorcerers,  and  the  Chaldeans.'^  It  Avould  be 
useless  to  attempt  to  define  exactly  what  was  the 
office,  pretension,  or  sphere  of  duty  pertaining  to 
each  of  these  several  classes.  It  is  enough  to  know 
that  they  were  the  recognized  keepers  of  the  highest 
wisdom,  the  skilled  dealers  with  all  recondite  things, 
the  men  set  to  ascertain  and  interpret  the  messages 
and  will  of  the  gods,  the  educated  teachers  and  medi- 
ators on  all  subjects  relating  to  the  supernatural,  the 
sacred,  the  invisible,  and  the  divine.  Among  them 
they  professed  to  know  the  mind  of  the  gods,  to  read 
fortunes  and  events  from  the  stars,  to  obtain  oracles 
from  the  unseen  powers,  to  explain  dreams,  visions 
and  omens,  to  charm  spirits,  cure  diseases,  and  pro- 
cure supernatural  interferences  and  aids.  They  had 
reduced  their  sciences  into  systems,  rules,  and  meth- 
ods, by  which  they  claimed  to  do  great  wonders. 
The  libraries  of  such  practitioners  at  Ephesus — 
which,  upon  their  conversion  by  the  preaching  of 
Paul,  they  publicly  burned — were  valued  at  fifty 
thousand  pieces  of  silver. 

All  these  scientists,  priests,  diviners,  and  represent- 


THE  VISION  OF  EMPIRE.  45 

atives  of  wisdom  and  spiritual  power  the  king  sum- 
moned to  the  work  of  divining  his  dream  and  inter- 
preting its  meaning.  And  so  earnest  and  resolved 
was  he  that  he  made  it  a  matter  of  life  or  death  to 
them.  He  demanded  of  them  either  to  make  known 
unto  him  what  had  been  shown  him,  as  also  the  in- 
terpretation thereof,  or  be  cut  to  pieces  by  the  public 
executioner  and  have  their  houses  destroyed.  In 
vain  did  they  remonstrate  that  he  was  asking  too 
much,  and  tasking  their  science  and  power  beyond 
reason.  He  was  only  angered  and  infuriated  by 
their  prevarication  and  delay,  and  gave  forth  the 
decree  that  they  should  all  be  slain. 

Much  blame  has  been  lodged  against  Nebuchadnez- 
zar for  this,  as  having  been  quite  too  harsh,  unreason- 
able, and  despotic.  That  there  was  something  of  ca- 
price and  inhuman  tyranny  in  his  nature  is  not  to  be 
denied.  That  there  was  a  decided  tinge  of  cruelty 
even  in  this  case  is  also  to  be  admitted.  But  Ori- 
ental despots  were  always  cruel,  and  the  same  features 
shoAV  themselves  to  this  day  among  Persian,  Indian, 
and  Turkish  rulers.  I  do  not  defend  it,  but  neither 
do  I  share  the  feeling  that  the  king  was  so  seriously 
at  fault.  It  may  be  true  that  the  demand  was  an  un- 
common one;  that  no  king  or  dreamer  had  ever  made 
such  a  requirement  before;  that  no  wise  man,  magi- 
cian, or  astrologer  had  ever  performed  such  a  task  as 
he  laid  upon  these  loud  pretenders ;  and  that  none  but 
the  gods  could  do  what  he  required.  Still,  they  pro- 
fessed to  speak  for  the  gods  in  other  things.  They 
claimed  to  be  able  to  divine  the  mind,  will,  and  pur- 


46  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

poses  of  the  eternals.  They  held  their  places,  honor, 
and  living  on  the  plea  of  being  in  communication 
with  the  spiritual  powers.  Even  in  this  instance  they 
alleged  their  ability  to  explain  exactly  what  the  vision 
meant  if  only  the  king  would  make  it  known  to  them. 
And  if  they  were  really  in  communication  with  the 
gods,  and  could  infallibly  tell  what  the  dream  meant, 
they  could  by  the  same  means  just  as  easily  tell  what 
the  dream  itself  was.  So  the  king  reasoned,  and  with 
perfect  right.  If  they  could  not,  from  communications 
with  the  gods,  tell  him  what  his  dream  was,  he  justly 
argued  that  neither  could  they  tell  him  what  it  meant. 
In  other  words,  they  stood  revealed  to  him  as  a  set  of 
impostors,  whose  pretension  was  all  deceit  and  sham, 
and  whose  claims  were  nothing  but  a  gigantic  lie.  In 
that  case  they  merited  his  intensest  resentment  and 
richly  deserved  the  severest  of  punishments.  Bloody 
and  extreme  as  the  sentence  was,  it  was  founded  in 
justice.  Sincere  as  some  of  these  men  may  have  been, 
their  profession  was  a  deception  and  an  imposture  so 
far  as  regarded  the  exercise  of  any  power  from  God. 
I  sympathize  therefore  with  the  king's  estimate  of  the 
matter.  If  he  showed  something  of  cruel  harshness, 
he  showed  also  his  correct  logic  and  sound  sense.  The 
matter  for  which  he  called  them  came  fairly  within 
their  province.  Not  to  be  able  to  meet  it  was  to  for- 
feit all  right  to  their  proud  place  and  influence. 
Whatever  else  they  may  have  been,  yet  as  exponents 
of  the  gods  or  as  mediators  of  the  sacred  powers  they 
were  a  failure;  and,  being  a  failure,  they  were  a  fraud; 
and,  being  a  fraud,  it  was  right  that  they  should  be 


THE  VISION  OF  EMPIRE.  47 

punished  and  swept  away.  And  one  day  more  would 
have  made  an  end  of  them  had  it  not  been  for  the 
youthful  Daniel,  who  came  forward  as  God's  true 
prophet,  answered  the  king's  demand,  and  saved  the 
necks  of  these  traders  in  imposition.  If  people  can- 
not do  what  they  profess  to  do,  and  what  they  have 
their  living  and  their  honor  for  doing,  tliey  ought  to 
suifer;  and  that  government  is  at  fault  which  does 
not  punish  them. 

But  the  tiling  has  much  deeper  and  farther-reach- 
ing implications.  It  furnishes  demonstration  of  the 
incompetence  of  all  mere  human  resources,  learning, 
and  power  to  ascertain  the  mind  and  will  of  God 
apart  from  His  own  revelations.  Here  was  the  full- 
grown  heathenism  of  more  than  a  thousand  years. 
Here  were  the  combined  strength  and  wisdom  of  the 
most  noted  schools  in  the  highest  acme  of  their 
glory.  Whatever  ability  existed  in  priest  or  savant, 
astrologer  or  necromancer,  wise  man  or  magician, 
apart  from  the  anointed  servants  of  the  God  of 
Israel,  was  here  concentred  and  embodied.  If  these 
men  failed,  it  was  the  laying  prostrate  of  all  the 
wisdom,  power,  and  art  of  man.  The  case  was 
legitimate.  It  was  propounded  by  proper  authority. 
It  presented  a  fair  test  which  they  could  not  dis- 
regard, evade,  or  escape.  Not  only  the  honor  of 
their  profession,  but  their  very  lives  and  dwellings 
were  put  under  forfeit.  Every  possible  condition 
existed  to  bring  out  the  utmost  that  could  be  done. 
And  fault  or  failure  in  a  trial  so  fair  and  so  com- 
plete could  only  be  because  it  is  not  in  man,  nor  in 


48  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

all  the  science  of  man,  nor  in  all  liis  occult  arts,  nor 
in  all  his  command  of  oracles,  incantations  and 
priestly  devices,  nor  in  all  his  calculations  of  the 
stars,  his  consultations  of  the  living  or  dead,  his 
rites  of  inquiry  of  devils  or  of  gods,  nor  in  any- 
thins:  that  lies  within  his  reach  or  control,  to  ascer- 
tain  the  mind,  the  will,  and  the  purposes  of  Jehovah. 

But  fail  they  did ;  and  themselves  confessed  the 
failure  before  the  face  of  all  the  empire.  "  The 
Chaldeans,'^  the  most  renowned  and  exalted  of  all 
the  orders  of  Babylon's  sages,  ^'  answered  before  the 
king,  and  said.  There  is  not  a  man  upon  the  earth  that 
can  shew  the  king^s  matter ;  .  .  .  there  is  none  other 
that  can  shew  it  before  the  king  except  the  gods,  ivhose 
chcelUng  is  not  with  flesh  J ^ 

I  look  upon  these  venerable  colleges  of  sages, 
savants,  priests,  mantologists,  and  philosophers.  I 
consider  how  much  they  were  above  and  beyond  all 
the  rest  of  the  heathen  world.  I  trace  how  Phoe- 
nicians, Egyptians,  Greeks,  and  Romans  copied  their 
systems,  adopted  their  sciences,  and  followed  their 
arts  and  inculcations.  I  see  in  them  the  full-orbed 
sun,  around  which  all  the  mythologies  and  the- 
ologies and  philosophies  and  religions  and  wisdom- 
treasures  of  the  whole  pagan  world  revolved  and 
derived  tlieir  light.  And  when  I  read  these  words, 
formally  given  out  by  their  very  chiefs  in  the  name 
of  them  all,  and  sorrowfully  pronounced  in  the 
audience  of  the  imperial  majesty  of  the  earth  as  tlie 
utmost  they  could  do  to  save  themselves  from  sum- 
mary destruction,  I  see  a  veil  of  darkness  drawn  over 


THE  VISION  OF  EMPIRE.  49 

all  the  wisdom,  strength,  and  science  of  man  which 
makes  me  shudder  as  I  gaze.  It  shows  me,  in  one 
single  sentence,  that  all  the  astrology,  necromancy, 
oracles,  dreams,  and  mantic  revelations  of  the  whole 
pagan  world  for  six  thousand  years  is  nothing  but 
imbecilities  and  lies.  It  proves  to  me,  in  one  brief 
utterance,  that  all  the  religions,  arts,  sciences,  philos- 
(^phies,  attainments,  and  powers  of  man,  apart  from 
God's  inspired  prophets  and  all-glorious  Christ,  are 
but  emptiness  and  vanity  as  regards  any  true  and 
adequate  knowledge  of  the  purposes  and  will  of 
Jehovah  or  of  the  destinies  of  man.  It  demon- 
strates to  me,  in  a  few  words  of  sad  despair,  that 
all  the  learned  theorizings  of  this  world's  would- 
be  wise,  irom  Babylon's  magicians  down  to  the 
Hobbes,  Herberts,  and  Voltaires  of  the  last  centu- 
ries and  the  materialistic  skeptics  and  pantheists  of 
our  own  day,  are  but  rottenness,  rubbish,  and  damn- 
ing falsehood,  in  so  far  as  they  conflict  Avith  the 
revelations  which  the  Almighty  has  given  by  His 
own  anointed  prophets.  It  is  to  the  modest  Daniels 
and  to  the  humble  Nazarenes,  after  all,  that  the  proud 
world  must  come  to  learn  the  true  God  and  to  find 
out  His  mind  and  purposes.  It  is  upon  these  that 
the  self-glorifying  wisdom  of  man  must,  after  all, 
lean  to  save  itself  from  being  cut  to  pieces  and 
blotted  from  the  earth.  And  without  these  there 
is  an  impenetrable  eclipse  upon  all  the  illuminating 
powers  of  our  world,  and  nothing  remains  but  de- 
spair and  death  even  for  the  wisest  and  the  best. 
I  fear,  my  friends,  that  we  do  not  half  appreciate 

4 


50  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

the  unspeakable  treasure  wliich  God  has  given  us  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  I  fear  that  even  our  most  con- 
siderate, pious,  and  devoted  believers  do  not  begin  to 
comprehend  the  desolation  which  would  swathe  tlie 
world  if  it  were  not  for  what  God^s  prophets  and 
evangelists  have  testified  and  written  for  our  learning. 
Have  you  ever  thought  what  would  be  the  result  if 
these  sacred  testimonies  were  to  be  stricken  out  of 
being,  with  all  that  rests  on  them  or  has  sprung  from 
them  ?  Have  you  ever  considered  what  an  utter  ob- 
literation of  the  highest  intellectual  and  moral  life 
of  the  race  would  attend  such  a  calamity  ?  Have  you 
ever  reflected  how  it  would  silence  every  preacher  of 
righteousness  and  salvation,  abolishing  at  once  his 
office  and  his  text,  stop  every  work  of  mercy  and 
philanthropy  that  would  bind  up  the  wounds  of  suf- 
fering humanity,  and  quench  every  fond  hope  of  the 
recovery  of  our  afflicted  world,  the  restoration  of  our 
dead,  or  a  home  in  heaven  when  this  poor  life  is  over  ? 
Ah  me !  Extinguish  the  Bible  and  its  teachings,  and 
no  star  remains  to  cheer  the  tossed  mariner  on  this 
troubled  sea — no  chart  by  which  to  direct  his  uncertain 
way — no  known  haven  or  blessed  shores  for  which  to 
steer !  Extinguish  the  Bible  and  its  teachings,  and 
the  last  appeal  of  the  down-trodden  and  oppressed, 
the  last  check  to  the  aggressions  of  power,  the  last 
bonds  of  restraint  upon  man^s  depravity,  are  gone, 
clean  gone,  giving  carnival  to  every  lust  and  freedom 
to  every  beastly  passion,  without  corrective,  without 
limit,  and  without  end !  Extinguish  the  Bible  and 
its  teachings,  and  light  and  comfort  wilt  away  like 


THE  VISION  OF  EMPIRE.  51 

Jonah's  smitten  gourd,  and  leave  man  to  drag  out  a 
hopeless  orphanage  while  years  continue,  and  then  to 
gather  himself  up  to  die  and  perish  like  the  brute ! 
Extinguish  the  Bible  and  its  teachings,  and  des})air 
and  wretchedness  must  settle  on  all  hearts,  as  on  the 
vanquished  Chaldean  sages  under  the  decree  of  their 
inexorable  king !  Ay,  did  men  but  understand  it, 
there  is  no  possession  on  earth  like  the  deliverances 
which  God  has  given  us  by  His  holy  prophets. 
Treasure,  then,  the  sacred  record  of  them.  The 
Bible  is  the  Book  of  books. 

"  Within  this  ample  volume  lies 
The  mystery  of  mysteries. 
Happiest  they  of  human  race 
To  whom  their  God  has  given  grace 
To  read,  to  fear,  to  hope,  to  pray, 
To  lift  the  latch  and  force  the  way  ; 
And  better  had  they  ne'er  been  born 
That  I'ead  to  doubt,  or  read  to  scorn." 


LECTUKE   THIRD. 

The  Succession  of  Kingdoms;    or,  The 
Four  Great  Sovereignties. 

JDaniel  2 :  36-46 

WE  have  seen  that  the  great  Nebuchadnezzar,  king 
of  Babylon,  dreamed  a  dream.  It  was  one  of 
the  most  original  and  significant  dreams  ever  present- 
ed to  the  contemplation  of  man.  It  exceedingly  im- 
pressed and  startled  the  king  to  whom  it  was  vouch- 
safed. But  though  deeply  affected  by  it,  when  he 
attempted  to  recall  it,  its  features  proved  so  obscured 
to  his  recollection  that  he  could  not  tell  what  it  was. 
Satisfied  that  it  was  something  very  extraordinary,  and 
that  something  divine  was  in  it,  he  a|)pealed  to  the 
ministers  of  religion  and  to  the  most  famous  adepts 
in  science  and  divinity — the  magicians,  astrologers, 
sorcerers  and  Chaldeans — to  recover  it  for  him  and 
to  give  him  the  proper  interpretation  of  it.  But  none 
of  them  were  of  any  avail  to  him.  And  though  he 
put  them  under  pain  of  being  hewn  to  pieces  and 
their  houses  reduced  to  ruins  if  they  did  not  tell  him 
what  it  was  and  what  it  meant,  they  were  obliged  to 
confess  that  all  their  science  and  powers  were  totally 
incompetent  to  do  for  him  what  he  required.  Infu- 
riated at  their  failure  in  a  matter  so  entirely  within 
the  province  of  their  j)rofessions,   he  gave  fortli   the 

52 


THE  SUCCESSION  OF  KINGDOMS.  Oo 

decree  that  they  should  all  be  slain  and  their  houses 
destroyed.  And  so  sweeping  was  the  edict  that  it  also 
involved  Daniel  and  his  three  friends. 

When  notice  of  this  bloody  decree  had  come  to 
Daniel,  he  wondered  that  the  king  should  be  so  sum- 
mary in  his  action  without  further  inquiry.  He  and 
his  friends,  though  involved  in  the  sentence,  had  not 
been  at  all  consulted,  and  why  should  they  be  put 
to  death  for  the  false  professions  and  incompetency 
of  others?  Daniel  had  a  considerable  likino^  for 
Nebuchadnezzar,  because  he  was  a  really  great  man, 
and  because  his  thinking  was  in  general  correct  and 
just ;  but  liere  was  a  case  of  manifest  wrong,  at  least 
so  far  as  he  and  Hananiah  and  Mishael  and  Azariah 
were  concerned.  Hence  his  surprise.  Hence  also  he 
went  in  to  the  king — to  whom  he  seems  to  have  had 
ready  access — modestly  expostulating  against  the  pre- 
mature execution  of  the  decree,  and  pledging  himself 
to  make  known  to  the  king  all  that  he  desired.  It 
was  a  very  bold  thing  for  Daniel  to  do,  for  as  yet 
he  was  in  total  blankness  as  to  what  the  king  had 
dreamed  or  as  to  what  was  the  meaning  of  the  vision. 
He  himself  seems  to  have  been  no  little  shaken  when 
he  came  to  realize  what  he  had  taken  upon  himself. 
It  had  about  it  the  air  of  the  greatest  presumption, 
which  it  would  be  very  wrong  to  imitate  except  un- 
der corresponding  circumstances.  It  reminds  us  of 
young  David  going  out  to  fight  the  great  Goliath  of 
Gath,  from  whom  all  the  mighty  warriors  in  the  army 
of  Saul  shrank  away.  But  in  both  these  instances  we 
recognize  a  divine  impulse  quite  above  the  reasonings 


54  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

and  courage  of  mere  man.  Daniel  liad  confidence  in 
the  power  and  presence  of  God  and  in  tlie  divine  suf- 
ficiency. He  had  had  some  personal  experience  of 
God's  prospering  providence,  and  felt  the  prc-inti- 
mations  of  the  high  office  for  which  he  was  destined. 
The  case  also  presented  indications  that  God  was  spe- 
cially concerned  in  the  king's  vision,  and  hence  would 
not  fail  to  bring  it  all  out.  The  superior  honor  of 
God  and  His  confessors,  as  over  against  the  deities  of 
Babylon  and  their  priests  and  servants,  was  also  so 
clearly  at  stake  that  there  was  good  reason  to  hope 
that  it  was  a  case  in  which  the  Almighty  would  not 
fail  to  interfere  to  help  out  those  who  put  their  trust 
in  Him. 

In  order,  therefore,  that  the  divine  help  might  not 
fail  him  in  this  emergency,  Daniel  concluded  to  lay 
the  matter  before  the  Lord,  and  urged  liis  three 
friends  to  unite  with  him  in  supplications  that  God 
would  be  gracious  to  him,  enable  him  to  fulfil  his 
pledge  to  the  king,  and  thus  save  him  and  his  fellows 
from  the  doom  that  impended.  There  is  nothing  like 
prayer.  It  is  the  ready  resource  of  the  saints  in  every 
time  of  need,  and  never  fails  to  secure  the  most  bless- 
ed results.  The  Christian  poet  did  not  overstate  its 
worth  and  power  when  he  said, 

"  Prayer  moves  the  Hand  that  moves  the  world." 

Neither  did  it  fail  in  this  instance,  for  '^  then  M^as  the 
secret  revealed  unto  Daniel  in  a  night  vision."  The 
dream  which  had  been  taken  away  from  the  king's 
recollection,  that  the  imbecilities  and  deceits  of  pagan 


THE  SUCCESSION  OF  KINGDOMS  55 

priests  and  propliets  might  be  detected  and  the  ser- 
vants of  Jehovah  exalted,  proved  to  be  this :  There 
stood  before  him  a  great  image  in  tlie  likeness  of  a 
liuman  being,  whose  "  brightness  was  excellent,"  but 
whose  "  form  was  terrible."  The  head  of  it  was  gold, 
the  breast  and  arms  silver,  the  abdomen  and  thighs 
brass,  the  legs  iron,  and  the  feet  and  toes  mingled  iron 
and  pottery.  Gazing  upon  this  image,  he  saw  a  mys- 
tic stone  from  the  mountain  supernaturally  fall  upon 
the  feet  of  the  figure,  shattering  them  to  atoms  and 
grinding  up  the  whole  fabric,  so  that  the  iron,  the 
clay,  the  brass,  the  silver  and  the  gold  became  like 
the  chaif  of  the  summer's  threshing-floor,  and  the 
winds  carried  them  away ;  but  the  stone  became  a 
great  mountain  and  filled  the  whole  earth. 

The  king  at  once  recognized  the  whole  descrip- 
tion, and  was  so  thoroughly  convinced  of  the  true 
and  real  inspiration  of  Daniel  that  he  bowed  down 
before  him  and  reverently  acknowledged  him  to  be 
a  prophet  of  the  most  high  God.  And  it  is  the  ex- 
planation of  this  dream  that  we  are  now  to  consider. 

I.  You  will  observe  that  Daniel  regarded  the 
dream  as  a  communication  from  God.  It  was  com- 
mon for  the  Almighty  to  communicate  with  men 
in  this  way.  "  In  a  dream,  in  a  vision  of  the  night, 
when  deep  sleep  falleth  upon  men,  in  slumberings 
upon  the  bed,  then  He  openeth  the  ears  of  men  and 
sealeth  their  instruction."  Jol)  xxxiii.  15-17.  God 
said  to  ancient  Israel,  "  If  there  be  a  prophet  among 
you,  I  the  Lord  will  make  myself  known  unto  him 
in  a  vision,  and  will  speak  unto  him  in  a  dream." 


56  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

Num.  xii.  6.  Jacob  was  promised  his  portion  in  a 
dream.  Joseph  was  foreshown  his  subsequent  ex- 
altation in  a  dream.  It  was  in  a  dream  that  God 
a})peared  to  Solomon  and  bade  him  ask  what  he 
wished.  And  so  in  hundreds  of  instances,  both  in 
the  Old  Testament  and  the  New.  Many  believe 
that  similar  experience  is  constantly  occurring.  Nor 
would  I  undertake  to  deny  it.  There  is  a  divine 
promise  concerning  the  latter  days,  that  God  will 
pour  out  His  Spirit  upon  all  flesh,  and  the  young 
men  shall  see  visions,  and  the  old  men  shall  dream 
dreams.  Acts  ii.  17.  Most  frequently  "  a  dream 
Cometh  through  the  multitude  of  business''  (Eccles. 
v.  3),  yet  there  are  instances  in  which  we  have  rea- 
son to  believe  that  God  does  still  interpose  to  in- 
struct, warn  and  admonish  ])eople  through  the 
agency  of  dreams.  We  are  not  to  look  for  illumi- 
nation in  this  way  where  we  have  the  Holy  Scriptures 
to  guide-  us ;  neither  are  we  to  believe  or  follow 
our  dreams  in  anything  contrary  to  God's  written 
word.  It  is  easy  to  become  superstitious  in  such 
matters,  and  to  do  ourselves  and  others  much  mis- 
chief by  observing  signs,  omens,  and  supposed  rev- 
elations. But  in  this  case  the  dream  w^as  from  the 
Lord.  Daniel  says  of  it,  ^^God  in  lieaven  maketh 
known  to  the  king  Nebuchadnezzar  what  shall  come 
to  pass — what  shall  be  in  the  latter  days."  It  was 
originally  from  God  to  the  king,  and  when  he  failed 
in  ability  to  recall  it,  it  was  God  who  made  it  known 
again  to  Daniel. 

Nor  is  it  to  be  thought  strange  that  God  should 


THE  SUCCESSION  OF  KINGDOMS.  57 

select  a  lieathen  king  to  be  tlie  organ  of  such  a 
mighty  revelation.  He  had  in  like  manner  em- 
ployed Pliaraoh  to  give  warning  of  the  famine  that 
was  about  to  come  upon  the  world ;  and  in  both 
instances  the  proceeding  contemplated  the  bringing 
forward  of  His  own  chosen  messengers  as  the  only 
interpreters.  Besides,  the  possession  of  political  power 
and  dominion  connects  very  closely  with  the  Al- 
mighty. Great  potentates,  whatever  may  be  their 
personal  character,  still  are,  in  a  sense,  God's  agents, 
servants  and  appointed  administrators.  "The  powers 
that  be  are  ordained  of  God."  Rom.  xiii.  1.  And 
it  is  not  incongruous  that  a  universal  monarch,  in 
the  highest  glory  of  the  world's  original  kingdom, 
should  be  the  seer  of  the  course  and  end  of  all  sec- 
ular dominion,  particularly  when  earnestly  con- 
cerned about  the  matter,  and  when  God's  own 
chosen  prophet  was  to  be  the  interpreter  of  it,  to 
the  great  discomfiture  of  the  necromancers  arid  blind 
guides  of  heathenism. 

II.  You  will  notice  also  that  Daniel  regarded  this 
dream  as  very  momentous.  When  it  was  made 
known  to  him  he  broke  into  exultant  adoration,  not 
so  much  because  he  was  the  honored  servant  to 
whom  it  was  revealed  as  for  what  it  signified.  It 
showed  such  a  majesty  above  all  the  majesty  of 
earth,  such  a  plan  in  the  course  of  all  human  gov- 
ernments and  dominion,  and  such  a  power  to  handle 
and  order  all  the  potencies  of  time,  that  his  soul 
was  ready  to  break  away  from  him  when  the  mighty 
showing    flashed    upon    his    undersfcmding.     It    set 


68  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

every  emotion  and  energy  within  hira  on  fire.  He 
thanked  and  praised  the  God  of  his  fathers  for 
having  answered  his  prayers  and  given  him  such 
wisdom,  but  first,  and  above  all,  for  the  showings 
of  the  dream  itself.  Sublime  is  the  song  he  uttered : 
"Daniel  answered  and  said,  Blessed  be  the  name 
of  God  for  ever  and  ever :  for  wisdom  and  might 
are  His :  and  He  changeth  the  times  and  the  sea- 
sons :  He  removeth  kings,  and  setteth  up  kings ; 
He  giveth  wisdom  unto  the  wise,  and  knowledge 
to  them  that  know  understanding :  He  revealeth  the 
deep  and  secret  things :  He  knoweth  what  is  in  the 
darkness,  and  the  light  dwelleth   with  Him." 

Such  expressions  could  come  only  from  an  under- 
standing of  what  the  dream  signified.  They  tell  of 
new  views  of  the  glory  and  attributes  of  God  and  His 
administrations  in  the  affairs  of  earth.  They  tell  of 
a  sweep  and  mnjesty  in  Jehovah's  plans,  and  of  a  sat- 
isfactoriness  of  outcome  to  them,  which  had  not  before 
been  realized  in  Daniel's  previous  thinking.  They  tell 
of  a  new  world  of  ideas,  exhibiting  the  intelligence, 
the  efficiency,  the  calculation,  the  potent  activity,  and 
the  just  and  beneficent  purposes  of  Jehovah  in  a  vast- 
ness  of  stretch,  and  yet  particularity  of  detail,  not  be- 
fore so  clearly  perceived.  As  Thomas,  in  the  fnlness 
of  his  conviction  when  he  beheld  the  risen  Christ, 
broke  out  in  the  recognition  of  depths  and  glories  in 
the  Saviour's  being  which  till  then  he  had  never  half 
appreciated,  so  Daniel  here  exultingly  broke  forth  in 
recognitions  of  the  majesty  of  the  living  God,  which 
he  had   never  half  comprehended  till  beheld  in  the 


THE  SUCCESSION  OF  KINGDOMS.  59 

prophetic  picture  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  dream.  Nor 
need  we  look  further  than  his  own  inspired  interpre- 
tation of  it  to  find  ample  justification  for  all  this  ex- 
ultant adoration. 

III.  You  will  notice  that  it  gives  an  outline  of  the 
history  and  destiny  of  all  earthly  dominion,  from 
Nebuchadnezzar  to  the  end  of  the  present  world,  and 
for  ever.  The  several  metals  of  which  the  great  im- 
age was  composed  designated  a  succession  of  universal 
empires.  For  this  we  have  the  authority  of  the  prophet 
himself. 

The  head  was  "  fine  gold ;''  and  Daniel  said  to 
Nebuchadnezzar,  "  Thou  art  this  head  oj goldP  There 
can  therefore  be  no  mistake  in  the  application  of  this 
part  of  the  vision.  Babylon  was  the  first  and  greatest 
of  kingdoms,  and  Nebuchadnezzar  was  its  sublimest 
king:  the  vision  therefore  begins  with  him.  He  and 
his  successors,  as  long  as  his  empire  stood,  constituted 
the  head  and  neck  of  this  image,  the  head  empire  of 
our  world.  The  exalted  character  of  it  is  shown  in 
the  part  of  the  figure  which  it  occupies — the  head ;  in 
the  material  of  which  it  is  composed — gold ;  and  in 
the  particular  description  given  by  the  prophet  in  his 
explanation  :  ''  Thou,  O  king,  art  a  king  of  kings  : 
for  the  God  of  heaven  hath  given  thee  a  kingdom, 
power,  and  strength,  and  glory :  and  wheresoever  the 
children  of  men  dwell,  the  beasts  of  the  field,  and  the 
fowds  of  the  heaven,  hath  He  given  into  thine  hand, 
and  hath  made  thee  ruler  over  them  all.  Thou  art 
this  head  of  gold.'' 

The  breast,  shoulders  and  arms  of  this  image  were 


60  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

silver.  From  the  finest  of  metals  the  descent  is  to  a 
less  valuable  one.  The  gold  gives  place  to  silver. 
The  great  empire  of  Nebuchadnezzar  is  supplanted 
by  another,  less  illustrious  than  his.  Nor  can  we  be 
at  a  loss  to  determine  its  identity.  Daniel  interprets 
it  as  meaning  "another  kingdom,"  and  one  which 
should  arise  in  immediate  succession  to  that  of  Baby- 
lon. Profane  history  amply  tells  what  kingdom  that 
was,  but  we  need  not  travel  beyond  the  records  of  the 
Bible  to  identify  it.  It  is  written  in  the  second  Book 
of  Chronicles  that  Nebuchadnezzar  carried  away  to 
Babylon  such  of  the  Jewish  people  as  escaped  the 
edge  of  the  sword,  ''  where  they  were  servants  to  him 
and  his  sons  until  the  reign  of  the  kingdom  of  Per- 
sla.^^  Even  in  this  Book  of  Daniel,  in  the  explana- 
tion of  the  handwriting  on  the  wall  at  Belshazzar's 
feast,  this  same  power  is  referred  to  as  of  "  the  Medes 
and  Persians.'^  These  were  two  nations,  answering 
to  the  two  shoulders  and  arms  of  the  image,  but 
l)ound  together  as  one  in  Cyrus,  the  mighty  con- 
queror, constituting  what  is  known  in  history  as  the 
Medo-Persian  empire,  the  second  great  universal  cm- 
j)ire  on  earth.  The  conquests  of  Cyrus,  the  repre- 
sentative of  this  power,  were  second  only  to  those 
of  Nebuchadnezzar  himself  Herodotus  writes  that 
^'  wherever  Cyrus  marched  throughout  the  earth  it 
was  impossible  for  the  nations  to  escape  him."  Xen- 
ophon  writes  that  ''  he  ruled  the  Medes,  subverted  the 
Syrians,  the  Assyrians,  the  Arabians,  the  Cappado- 
cians,  the  Phrygians,  the  Lydians,  the  Carians,  the 
Babylonians,  the  Indians,  the  Ph'ienicians,  the  Greeks 


THE  SUCCESSION  OF  KINGDOMS.  61 

ill  Asia,  the  Cyprians,  the  Egyptians,  and  struck  all 
witli  such  dread  and  terror  that  none  ventured  to  as- 
sail him.  He  subdued  from  his  throne  east,  west, 
north  and  south."  Seventy  years  from  the  beo:innin<»: 
of  Nebuchadnezzar's  reign  did  his  dynasty  run,  till, 
under  his  grandson,  the  sensual  Belshazzar,  Cyrus 
gained  possession  of  Babylon  and  established  over  it 
the  great  Medo-Persian  dominion.  About  t^vo  hun- 
dred years  did  this  Medo-Persian  empire  stand ;  and 
we  need  only  refer  to  such  of  its  sovereigns  as  Cam- 
byses,  Darius  Hystaspes  and  Xerxes  in  illustration 
of  its  vastness,  wealth  and  power.  But  it  too  was  to 
pass  away  and  to  l)e  superseded  by  another. 

The  abdomen  and  thighs  of  the  image  were  of 
brass,  Nvhich  according  to  the  explanation  denoted  "  a 
third  kingdom,"  which  was  likewise  to  ''  bear  rule 
over  all  the  earth."  In  the  somewhat  parallel  vision 
given  in  a  subsequent  chapter  we  learn  what  power  is 
here  denoted — to  wit,  "the  king  of  Orecia,"  or  the 
Grseco-Macedonian  empire  of  Alexander  the  Great. 
A  double  line  of  monarchs  had  been  holding  petty 
sway  over  the  turbulent  Greeks  for  more  than  eight 
hundred  years  when  Philip  of  Macedon,  against 
whom  Demosthenes  so  eloquently  harangued,  sub- 
dued the  various  Grecian  states  to  his  dominion. 
Alexander  was  his  son,  in  whom  the  genius  and 
spirit  of  conquest  reigned  and  wrought  with  amaz- 
ing power.  It  was  a  little  more  than  three  hundred 
years  before  the  birth  of  Christ  that  he  set  out  in  his 
great  Eastern  expeditions,  conquered  the  Medo-Per- 
sians   and    took   possession    of  Babylon,   feeding  the 


62  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

sti-eiigth  of  his  own  supremacy  with  the  wrecl<s  and 
spoils  of  all  the  great  dominions  before  him,  and  then 
sat  down  and  wept  because  no  more  great  nations  re- 
mained to  be  conquered.  The  kingdoms  of  the  Se- 
leucidjB  and  the  Ptolemies  were  the  principal  contin- 
uation of  the  dominion  acquired  by  Alexander,  and 
answer  to  the  two  thio^hs  of  this  imao-e. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  here  that  the  period  of  the 
Persian  and  Macedonian  empires  is  regarded  as  the 
most  brilliant  in  the  world's  history.  Its  lists  of 
heroes,  poets,  painters,  orators,  statesmen,  historians 
and  men  of  renown  are  the  longest  and  most  illus- 
trious of  any  known  to  earthly  fame.  But  while  the 
annalists  of  this  world  view  it  as  the  o^olden  aire, 
and  cannot  get  done  lauding  it  as  the  brightest  in 
the  scroll  of  time,  God  pictures  it  as  an  age  of  brass 
— an  age  of  glare  and  flare,  with  but  little  real  merit 
— and  assigns  to  it  only  the  briefest  place  in  His 
holy  records.  When  Paul  stood  on  Mar's  Hill  he 
referred  to  this  age  of  blaze  and  splendor,  and  called 
it  ^Hhe  times  of  this  ignoranee,^^  and  the  same  estimate 
is  put  upon  it,  both  positively  and  negatively,  in  all 
parts  of  the  divine  word.  AVhat  this  world  holds 
for  gold  God  knows    to  be  but  brass. 

But  the  image  had  legs,  and  feet,  and  toes.  These 
were  of  iron,  except  the  toes,  Avhich  were  of  mingled 
iron  and  clay.  This,  Daniel  says,  denoted  "  the  fourth 
kingdojn,'^  "strong  as  iron  :  forasmuch  as  iron  break- 
eth  in  pieces  and  subdueth  all  things:  and  as  iron  that 
breaketh  all  these,  shall  it  break  in  pieces  and  bruise." 
Tht'  particular  name  of  this  power  is  not  given  in  the 


THE  SUCCESSION  OE  KINGDOMS.  <)-'» 

Old  Testument,  for  the  time  of  its  rise  was  after  the 
close  of  the  ancient  Canon,  and  its  career  belonos 
mostly  to  New  Testament  times.  Hence  we  read  in 
Luke  ii.,  iii.  of  a  dominion  which  claimed  the  sove- 
reignty over  the  earth,  of  "  a  decree  from  Csesar  Au- 
gustus that  all  the  world  should  be  taxed/^  and  of 
an  emperor  called  ^'Tiberius  Ciesar,  Pontius  Pilate 
being  governor  of  Judea."  And  when  we  read 
further  of  the  breaking  and  bruising  wrought  under 
the  administration  of  the  Csesars,  the  crushing  of 
conquered  nations,  the  crucifixion  of  the  immaculate 
Son  of  God,  the  utter  destruction  of  the  Holy  City, 
the  slaying  of  all  the  apostles  of  our  Lord,  the  ten 
mighty  perse(;utions  w^hich  reddened  the  whole  Ro- 
man empire  with  martyr  blood,  and  the  threshing, 
breaking  and  stamping  done  everywhere  and  in  all 
directions  by  the  iron  despotism  of  Pome, — there  can 
be  no  reasonable  question  as  to  the  identity  of  the 
power  denoted  by  this  part  of  the  great  image.  The 
Roman  empire  had  two  great  divisions,  the  Eastern 
and  the  Western,  answering  to  the  two  legs.  It  was 
universal,  like  the  three  universal  empires  which 
23receded  it.  It  was  the  strongest  of  all  the  govern- 
ments the  world  had  ever  seen,  and  from  all  quar- 
ters it  is  characterized  as  the  one  superlatively  won 
kingdom.  When  its  armies  invaded  the  islands  of 
Britain,  the  Scottish  chieftain  Galgacus  said,  "These 
ravagers  of  the  world,  after  all  the  earth  has  been  too 
narrow  for  their  ambition,  have  ransacked  the  sea  also. 
If  their  enemy  be  rich,  they  are  covetous;  if  poor,  they 
are  ambitious.      The   East  cannot  satiate   them — no 


64  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

more  can  the  West.  To  plunder,  to  murder,  to  rob, 
is  their  delight.  Violence  they  call  dominion ;  and 
wherever  they  can  make  a  dreary  solitude  they  call 
it  peace."  Gibbon  uses  the  very  imagery  of  the  text 
with  regard  to  the  nations  successively  broken  by  the 
iron  monarchy  of  Rome,  and  tells  how  ''  the  empire 
of  the  Romans  filled  the  world,  and  when  that  em- 
pire fell  into  the  hands  of  a  single  person,  the  world 
became  a  safe  and  dreary  prison  for  his  enemies. 
To  resist  was  fatal,  and  it  was  impossible  to  fly." 
"  Wherever  you  are,"  said  Cicero,  "  remember  that 
you  are  equally  within  the  power  of  the  conqueror." 
Since  the  Roman  there  has  been  no  universal  em- 
pire, nor  will  there  ever  be  again,  after  the  style  of 
the  four  great  monarchies  symbolized  in  this  dream. 
After  imperial  Rome  had  run  its  course,  its  territory 
and  power  parted  into  various  subdivisions.  In  the 
composition  of  these  something  of  the  iron  remained, 
but  only  in  connection  with  the  more  fragile  element 
of  baked  clay,  the  forms  and  coherences  of  which 
were  to  be  fluctuating  and  doubtful.  History  down 
to  our  time  tells  how  completely  this  has  been  ful- 
filled. In  this  severed,  variable,  '^partly  strong  and 
partly  broken  "  form  the  Roman  dominion  still  con- 
tinues. Under  its  codes,  combined  with  the  brittle 
intermixture  of  the  will  of  the  governed,'  all  the 
nations  are  still  living,  and  will  continue  to  live  to 
the  very  end  of  this  present  world,  when  the  stone 
will  strike,  making:  an  end  of  all  mere  human  sov- 
ereignty,  and  setting  up  in  its  place  "a  kingdom 
which  shall   never  be  destroyed,  but  shall   break  in 


THE  SUCCESSION  OF  KINGDOMS.  65 

f)ieces  and  consume  all  these  kingdoms,  and  stand  for 
ever." 

IV.  You  will  notice  also  that  in  this  foreshowinfr 
of  the  succession  of  earthly  administration  there  is  a 
continuous  deterioration  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end.  Political  economists  and  statesmen  claim  that 
the  world  has  been  growing  in  wisdom  and  excel lencf' 
through  all  these  ages,  and  that  the  administrations  of 
power  particularly  mark  this  progress.  And  in  some 
respects  there  has  been  growth.  The  great  image  has 
gone  on  filling  out  as  time  proceeded.  The  experi- 
ences and  observations  of  man  have  also  vastly  in- 
creased. His  progress  over  the  earth,  his  acquaint- 
ance with  its  character,  relations,  elements  and  adap- 
tations, and  his  mastery  of  its  natural  susceptibilities 
and  powers,  have  wonderfully  advanced.  But  with 
all,  in  God's  estimate,  there  has  been  a  never-<;easing 
downwardness,  depreciation  and  tendency  toward  the 
earth  out  of  which  man  was  taken.  The  beginning 
was  gold;  the  next  stage  was  silver;  the  third  was 
brass ;  the  fourth  was  iron ;  and  then  came  iron  min- 
gled with  clay,  until  we  now  have  very  much  more 
mud  than  metal.  Babylon,  the  head,  was  an  absolute 
autocracy;  and  as  a  government  God  likened  it  to 
gold.  Persia  was  a  monarchical  oligarchy,  in  which 
nobility  was  everything,  and  the  nobles  were  equal  to 
the  king  in  all  but  office;  and  as  a  government  God 
likened  it  to  silver.  Greece  was  essentially  an  aris- 
tocracy, not  of  birth,  but  of  supposed  excellence  of 
mind  and  influence;  and  as  a  government  God  liken- 
ed it  to  brass.    Rome  was  a  democratic  im])erialism — a 


QQ  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

military  doniiiiion,  dependent  upon  the  choice  of  the 
army  and  the  free  citizens,  and  administered  in  the 
S})irit  of  martial  law ;  and  as  a  government  God 
likened  it  to  iron,  strong,  harsh  and  frowning,  but 
far  inferior  to  gold,  silver  or  brass.  And  then,  at  the 
last,  as  parcelled  out  into  constitutional  monarchies 
and  more  republican  forms.  He  likens  it  to  treacher- 
ous clay,  incoherently  mixed  with  iron. 

Nor  is  there  a  trovernment  now  on  earth  which  is 
not  made  up  of  this  compounded  pottery.  The  next 
stage,  according  to  the  vision,  is  to  be  the  original, 
God-made  mountain  rock,  out  of  which  all  these 
other  metals  and  materials  have  been  derived,  even 
the  original  and  everlasting  government  of  the  Orig- 
inator of  all  things. 

It  is  therefore  the  whole  history  of  the  world  that 
is  comprehended  in  this  vision.  Note,  then,  how  all 
the  various  actors,  agencies  and  activities  that  shape 
human  history  fulfil  Jehovah's  counsels.  Whatever 
the  motives  which  actuate  them,  the  passions  that 
sway  them,  or  the  freedom  and  self-direction  by 
which  they  proceed,  they  still  only  act  out  the  ])ro- 
granmie  which  God  long  ago  fore-announced.  We 
behold  the  heroes,  conquerors,  statesmen  and  opera- 
tors of  the  olden  time  going  forward  with  their 
schemes  of  ambition,  making  conquests,  carving 
names,  building  up  thrones,  monuments,  fortunes 
and  glories  for  themselves,  their  associates  and  their 
children,  each  busy  on  his  own  account,  yet  each  only 
filling  uj),  unknown  to  himself,  what  was  projected  in 
the  mind  of  the  Almighty  for  a  thousand  years  before. 


THE  SUCCESSION  OF  KINGDOMS.  67 

^'  We  see  Hannibal,  who  had  never  heard  of  God's 
prophecies,  begin  his  wars  with  Rome,  and  thus  train 
her  soldiers  to  become  the  conquerors  of  the  world. 
We  see  Scipio,  Marias,  Pompey  and  C?esar  each  take 
up  the  place  assigned  him,  and  fight  or  fall  or  con- 
quer till  they  make  Rome  nothing  less  and  nothing 
more  than  what  Daniel  had  predicted  that  Rome  should 
be.  We  see  the  eloquence  of  Cicero,  the  poetry  of 
Virgil,  the  odes  of  Horace,  the  annals  of  Tacitus, 
the  pungent  satires  of  Juvenal,  the  history  of  Gibbon, 
all  rush  forward  to  produce  results  and  witness 
to  facts  which  none  of  them  comprehended,  but 
which  fill  out  and  demonstrate  to  a  skeptic  world 
what  the  young  prophet  in  Chaldea  said  and  cele- 
brated— to  wit,  that  God  changeth  the  times  and  sea- 
sons, that  He  removeth  kings  and  setteth  up  kings, 
that  He  knoweth  what  is  in  the  darkness  and  possess- 
eth  the  light !  All  these  fell  into  place  at  the  ap- 
pointed times ;  and  while  they  thought  they  were 
each  doing  his  own  work,  all  were  co-operating  to 
accomplish  God's  predictions.  They  thought  they 
were  the  statuaries  cutting  out  the  image  after  their 
own  design,  whilst  they  were  but  the  chisels  in  the 
hand  of  the  great  Sculptor,  unconsciously  and  unin- 
tentionally fulfilling  His  own  grand  conception."  (See 
Dr.  Gumming  in  loc.) 

History,  as  it  appears  to  man,  seems  to  be  only 
the  aggregate  of  lucky  occurrences.  The  most  trifling 
and  ordinary  things  often  determine  the  character- 
istics of  ages.  History  takes  shape  from  accidents. 
A  stroke  of  lightning,  killing  a  young  man  in  Ger- 


68  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

many,  sent  Luther  to  the  convent  and  begot  the 
mighty  Reformer, 

"  Whose  yes  or  no  the  wheel  of  ages  turned ; 
Who  balanced  Europe  on  a  single  breath." 

The  very  existence  of  Eome  hung  upon  the  doubt- 
ful fate  of  two  infant  boys  left  in  the  wilderness  to 
perish.  Its  fortune  was  once  balanced  on  the  single 
sword  of  one  of  its  patricians.  At  another  time  its 
capital  was  saved  by  the  cackling  of  the  geese  which 
chanced  to  be  fed  there.  Such  things  look  like  very 
little  accidents,  and  would  seem  to  argue  that  history 
itself  is  accident.  But  all  these  accidents  had  to 
be  fore-calculated  in  any  attempt  to  tell  it  before- 
hand. In  this  case  they  belonged  as  much  to  the 
filling  out  of  the  predictions  as  the  victories  of 
Cyrus,  the  conquests  of  Alexander,  or  the  heroic 
deeds  of  the  greatest  of  the  Csesars.  The  smallest 
things,  as  well  as  the  more  momentous  things,  are 
all  alike  in  the  contemplations  and  fore-calculations 
of  Jehovah,  and  enter  equally  into  His  all-com])re- 
hending  j3urposes.  That  the  wolves  did  not  eat 
Romulus  and  Remus,  but  suckled  them ;  that  the 
sword  of  Camillus  should  accomplish  what  it  did  ; 
and  that  the  dull  and  plodding  fowls  should  be 
in  place  to  raise  their  cries,  in  timely  warning  of 
the  presence  of  the  stealthy  foe, — were  all  as  needful 
to  the  fulfilment  of  Daniel's  prophecy,  and  hence 
as  much  fore-calculated  by  the  Eternal  Mind  in 
giving  this  dream  to  Nebuchadnezzar,  as  the  cam- 
paigns of  the  most  famous  generals,  the  marchet^  of 


THE  SUCCESSION  OF  KINGDOMS.  69 

the  most  massive  armies  or  the  results  of  the  most 
decisive  battles.  History  would  have  been  different 
without  them,  and  then  this  dream  could  not  have 
been  true.  Thus  it  follows  that  everything,  and 
every  actor  in  the  world's  affairs,  soldier  and  sen- 
ator, poet  and  orator,  priest  and  oracle,  saint  and 
sinner,  has  place  in  the  mind  and  prescience  of  God, 
and  performs  the  part  required  in  the  working  out 
of  plans  matured  and  understood  by  Him  from  the 
beginning.  "  Oh  the  depth  of  the  riches,  both  of 
the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God !  How  un- 
searchable are  His  judgments,  and  His  ways  past 
finding  out !" 

Note  then,  still  further,  the  reality  of  inspiration 
and  the  absolute  certainty  of  supernatural  revela- 
tions from  God  to  men.  This  is  one  of  the  thintrs 
at  which  our  modern  world  is  full  of  stumblino^. 
The  old  nations  accepted  it  as  not  only  possible,  but 
in  every  respect  so  likely  and  desirable  that  they 
never  thought  of  the  gods  except  as  willing  and 
ready  to  make  communications  to  mankind  in  all 
cases  of  importance.  So  satisfied  and  confident  were 
they  upon  this  point  that  they  willingly  took  up 
with  anything  that  had  the  remotest  semblance  of 
a  claim  to  be  considered  divine.  In  the  days  of 
gold,  and  silver,  and  brass,  and  even  iron,  there  was 
no  trouble  on  this  subject.  The  doctrine  that  it  is 
absurd  to  believe  in  communications  from  God  was 
reserved  for  the  period  of  earthiness  and  pottery. 
It  has  only  come  with  that  sublime  development  of 
human  genius  which  gets  everything,  including  itself. 


70  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

and  even  Deity,  from  slime  and  filth.  Such  con- 
summate wisdom  remained  to  be  brought  forth  only 
when  man  bent  down  from  his  erect  posture  and 
heavenward  look  for  the  contemplation  of  material 
forces,  adaptations,  elements  and  interests  as  his 
supreme  world  of  thought  and  energy.  It  belongs 
to  that  high  and  superlative  science  which  finds  its 
inspirations  in  the  manipulation,  capacities  and  evo- 
lutions of  mud  !  But  all  such  wisdom  is  but  vanity 
and  emptiness.  It  may  please  the  flesh,  but  it  must 
starve  the  soul.  It  claims  to  rest  on  facts.  Well, 
here  are  facts,  and  they  demonstrate  a  living  God,  and 
unmistakable  communications  from  Him.  Here  is 
a  piece  of  composition  which  no  one  has  dared  to 
assign  a  later  origin  than  the  Maccabean  age,  but 
which  gives  the  whole  political  and  social  history 
of  man  for  two  thousand  years  since  that  time.  But 
it  is  older  than  the  time  of  the  Maccabees.  It  was 
known  and  acknowledged  as  a  sacred  book  when 
Alexander  lived  and  Persia  was  still  in  power.  Jo- 
sephus  witnesses  {Ant,  xi.  cap.  8)  that  it  was  shown 
to  the  Macedonian  conqueror  in  Jerusalem  when  on 
his  Eastern  expedition ;  that  the  high  j)riest  ex- 
plained to  him  in  person  how.  it  foretold  the  coming 
of  a  Greek  who  should  destroy  the  Persian  empire  ; 
and  that  he  was  so  pleased  and  encouraged  by  its 
seeming  reference  to  himself  that  he  agreed  to  leave 
Judea  untouched  and  to  grant  the  Jews  whatever 
favors  they  might  ask.  This  is  corroborated  by  the 
historic  facts  that  Alexander  was  at  that  time  per- 
sonally   in    Palestine;    that  he   had  a  special    inter- 


THE  SUCCESSION  OF  KINGDOMS  71 

view  with  the  high  priest  and  other  Jewish  notables; 
that  the  Jews  voluntarily  agreed  to  aeeept  submission 
to  him;  and  that  he  never  did  disturb  or  molest  them. 
This  was  more  than  a  century  and  a  half  before  An- 
tiochus  Epiphanes.  Being  at  tliat  time  in  tlie  Canon, 
it  must  needs  be  referred  to  the  period  and  author- 
sliip  of  him  whose  name  it  bears.  Ezekiel  was  the 
contemporary  of  Daniel's  later  years,  and  Ezekiel 
mentions  him  twice  with  most  distinguished  honor 
as  an  eminent  teacher,  prophet  and  servant  of  God. 
Ezek.  xiv.  13,  14;  xxviii.  3.  Christ  himself  quotes 
from  the  Book  as  the  production  of  *^  Daniel  the 
prophet,"  and  not  the  work  of  some  unknown  author 
in  the  time  of  the  Maccabees.  Matt.  xxiv.  15.  We 
have,  then,  ample  reason  to  accept  it,  in  all  its  essen- 
tial parts  at  least,  for  just  what  it  professes  to  be. 

And  when  we  find  in  this  Book  tlie  whole  jwlitical 
and  social  history  of  our  world  grandly  and  truly 
sketched,  just  as  it  has  turned  out  from  that  time  to 
this  living  present,  how  can  we  construe  it  except 
upon  the  doctrine  alleged  by  the  prophet,  that  it  was 
revealed  to  him  from  the  almio-htv  and  all-knowing 
One  ?  Comparing  so  plain  a  prophecy  with  a  range 
of  historic  facts  so  vast,  so  indisputable,  and  so  im- 
possible of  antici})ation  by  any  sagacity  of  man,  how 
can  we  rid  ourselves  of  the  conclusion  that  there  is 
an  omniscient  God  who  does  condescend  to  reveal 
hidden  things?  Could  it  just  have  happened  so? 
How  could  a  young  man  like  Daniel,  unacquainted 
as  yet  with  the  great  problems  of  politics  and  gov- 
ernment, stand  up  in  the  midst  of  Babylon  at  a  time 


72  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON, 

when  Its  unrivalled  dominion  gave  every  token  of 
abiding  permanence,  and  assure  the  king  whose  sce])- 
tre  swayed  unquestioned  over  all  the  known  work1^ 
that  this  empire  would  presently  pass  away,  this 
glory  disappear,  this  matchless  dominion  fall  a  prey 
to  another  power,  which  should  in  turn  give  place 
to  a  third,  and  that  third  to  a  fourth,  and  that  fourth 
divide  out  into  ten,  and  then,  amid  varied,  uncer- 
tain and  ev-er-deteriorating  changes,  run  to  the  final 
termination  of  all  mere  human  rule ;  and  all,  as  far 
as  history  has  been  enacted,  turn  out  precisely  as  he 
said.  If  lie  was  not  miraculously  helped  and  illumined 
by  the  inspiration  of  the  Eternal  ?  Such  a  thing 
would  be  a  miracle  more  marvellous  than  inspira- 
tion. Yet  here  are  the  facts.  They  cannot  be  dis- 
puted. They  stand  invincible  .  against  both  sneers 
and  arguments.  You  must  blot  out  two  thousand 
five  hundred  years  of  earth's  history  in  order  to  get 
rid  of  them.  Man  has  no  records  besides  them. 
And  here  is  the  evidence,  equally  Invincible,  that 
Daniel  foreknew  and  foretold  them  as  accurately  as 
the  events  have  occurred  or  the  historians  recorded 
them.  How  did  he  get  that  information  f  How 
could  he  thus  know  and  declare  beforehand  what 
was  so  improbable  to  all  human  likelihood,  so  Im- 
})0ssible  for  mere  human  foresight  to  anticipate? 
He  tells  us  that  God,  the  living  God,  the  God 
who  rules  all  kingdoms  and  all  history,  the  God 
to  whose  onmisclence  all  things  are  present,  naked 
and  open,  the  Almighty,  revealed  these  things  to 
him ;    and    the   seal    to   his    assertion    is    Immutably 


THE  SUCCESSION  OF  KINGDOMS.  73 

stamped  upon  all  tlie  records  of  the  succeeding 
ages. 

What,  then,  are  we  to  conclude — what  else  can  we 
conclude — but  that  inspiration  is  a  reality  ;  that  there 
is  a  knowing  God  in  heaven,  whose  word  has  come 
out  upon  earth ;  that  His  holy  prophets  were  not 
liars  when  they  delivered  and  wrote  down  His  mes- 
sages to  men ;  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  divine 
revelation  ? 

Men  and  brethren,  let  us  not  deceive  ourselves. 
There  is  a  God  in  history,  and  He  hath  prophets 
whom  He  hath  sent  to  speak  His  word  and  will. 
These  living  oracles  are  verily  from  Him.  And 
if  any  man  have  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear  them. 


LECTURE   FOURTH. 

The  Final  Dominion;  or,  The  Kingdom 
OF  THE  Stone. 

Daniel  2  :  3 If,  35;  U'M^- 

ACCORDING  to  Daniel's  interpretation  of  Neb- 
uchadnezzar's great  vision,  it  was  meant  to  set 
forth  the  history  of  eartlily  dominion  from  the  time 
of  the  vision  down  to  the  end.  One  image  served  for 
this  purpose.  The  history  and  career  of  this  world's 
empire,  truly  considered,  presents  the  appearance  of 
one  great  man,  with  a  head  and  neck  of  gold,  breast 
and  arms  of  silver,  abdomen  and  thighs  of  brass,  legs 
and  feet  of  iron,  and  toes  of  mingled  iron  and  clay. 
The  several  metals  mark  its  several  great  transitions 
and  its  constant  deterioration,  but  they  all  belong 
equally  to  one  and  the  same  image  and  history,  which 
spans  the  whole  period  of  the  world,  from  the  first 
great  empire  to  the  time  when  "  man^s  day^^  ceases 
and  the  rule  of  corrupt  mortals  ends  for  ever.  Be- 
ginning with  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  golden  head,  all 
the  other  parts  were  consecutively  the  ]\Iedo-Persian 
dominion,  the  Grseco-Macedonian  dominion  and  the 
Roman  dominion,  the  latter  dividing  out  at  last  into 
numerous  fragments  and  varying  kingdoms,  extend- 
ing down  to  the  present  time. 

In  this  fragmentary  form,  modified  with  the  ele- 
ment of  "  the  sovereignty  of  the  j^eople  " — the  "  miry 
74 


THE  FINAL  DOMINION.  75 

clay"  of  government — this  Roman  dominion  still  con- 
tinues. It  may  sound  strangely  to  modern  republican 
and  democratic  ears  to  say  so,  but  it  is  nevertheless 
historically  true.  Though  it  is  now  more  than  one 
thousand  years  since  the  old  imperial  form  of  Roman 
government  broke  up,  yet  "  from  the  commencement 
of  the  reign  of  Augustus  Csesar  down  to  the  memor- 
able year  1806 — a  period  which  comprises  a  longer 
term  than  eighteen  centuries — the  world  has  never 
been  without  an  emperor  of  the  Romans."  It  is  also 
a  fact,  which  no  one  competent  to  speak  on  the  subject 
will  deny,  that  all  the  kingdoms,  governments  and 
civilized  nations  now  on  the  face  of  the  earth  are  still 
constituted  and  ruled  by  the  codes,  pandects  and  prin- 
ciples of  laws  laid  down  by  that  iron  empire.  All  the 
histories  of  laws  prove  this.  Whatever  else  the  revo- 
lutions of  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  did,  they  '^  did 
not  blot  out  the  Roman  law."  With  all  the  new 
order  that  broke  over  the  world,  the  old  Roman  law 
still  continued  in  force  as  an  actual  jurisprudence. 
The  Germanic  invaders  did  not  destroy  the  Romans 
nor  impose  upon  them  new  codes.  Wherever  Roman 
dominion,  had  been  fully  established,  as  in  Gaul,  Spain 
and  Italy,  the  remains  of  Roman  institutions,  laws 
and  modes  of  thought  continued,  and  as  society  grad- 
ually became  settled  were  taken  as  the  basis  of  the 
legislation  that  was  created  for  the  new  nations. 

The  principles,  doctrines  and  rules  of  Roman  law 
made  up  the  jurisprudence  of  Europe.  In  the  twelfth 
century  Bologna  had  a  great  law  school  fn-  the  study 
and  exposition  of  the  pandects,  the  code,  the  institutes, 


76  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

and  the  novells  which  constituted  the  corpus  or  body 
of  the  civil  law  of  the  Romans,  which  spread  its  in- 
fluence over  Europe  and  largely  affected  the  judicial 
affairs  of  the  whole  continent;  so  that  the  Roman  law 
became  the  common  law  of  Europe,  and  thence  of  all 
the  governments  which  have  since  been  formed.  It  is 
the  iron  from  the  kingdom  of  iron  in  which  that  old 
empire  still  has  being  and  holds  its  sway  over  the 
earth,  though  the  last  of  its  ancient  emperors  has 
been  dead  for  more  than  a  thousand  years.  Besides, 
we  have  occasion  to  know  that  there  is  a  pope  of 
Rome,  claiming  to  be  the  supreme  bishop  of  the  uni- 
versal Church,  and  dictating  canon  law  to  all  the 
world.  But  it  was  a  Roman  emperor  who  put  him 
into  this  supremacy.  He  is  the  highest  ruler  on  eartli 
at  this  hour  to  nearly  one  hundred  millions  of  the  race 
in  all  sections  of  the  habitable  world,  and  exhibits  the 
ghostly  shadow  of  the  old  empire  in  ecclesiastical  form. 
Look  where  we  will,  w^e  still  find  something  of  the 
iron  dominion  conditioning  more  or  less  all  the  ad- 
ministrations that  exist.  No  new  power  has  been 
able  to  take  the  sovereignty  as  against  it,  and  never 
wdll  as  long  as  the  rule  of  man  lasts.  The  kingdom 
is  divided  and  intermixed  with  the  clay  and  clamor 
of  the  popular  will,  but  the  metal  which  stays  all 
existing  governments,  the  solid  material  of  their  laws 
and  administrations,  is  the  iron  of  old  Rome,  which 
thus  perpetuates  itself  in  spite  of  the  uprisings, 
changes,  revolutions,  marches  and  countermarches  in 
the  political  affairs  of  mankind. 

But  having  reached  these  days  of  the  mingled  iron 


THE  FINAL  DO^IimON.  77 

and  clay,  when  the  kingdom,  partly  strong  and  partly 
broken,  is  endeavoring  to  maintain  and  perpetuate 
itself  by  all  manner  of  compromises  and  coalitions, 
which  give  way  as  fast  as  they  are  made,  we  stand 
npon  the  margin  of  events  the  most  momentous  in 
all  the  history  of  human  dominion.  It  is  in  the  days 
of  these  kingdoms  that  all  earthly  political  succes- 
sions are  to  come  to  a  sudden  termination,  and  be 
no  more.  Look  again  at  the  prophetic  description : 
''  And  in  the  days  of  these  kings  [rather,  kingdoms] 
shall  the  God  of  heaven  set  up  a  kingdom,  which 
shall  never  be  destroyed  :  and  the  kingdom  shall  not 
be  left  to  other  people,  but  it  shall  break  in  pieces  and 
consume  all  these  kingdoms,  and  it  shall  stand  for 
ever.  Forasmuch  as  thou  sawest  that  the  stone  was 
cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  hands,  and  that  it 
brake  in  pieces  the  iron,  the  brass,  the  clay,  the  silver, 
and  the  gold,  the  great  God  hath  made  known  to  thee 
what  shall  come  hereafter.^' 

Here  we  have  a  unique  and  unparalleled  power 
and  dominion.  To  what  does  it  refer?  What  does 
it  mean?     How  shall  we  identify  it? 

The  fi  st  point  I  make  concerning  it  is,  that  it  is 
truly  a  kingdom,  a  government,  a  tangible  sover- 
eignty and  dominion  over  the  earth.  All  the  con- 
nections and  terms  of  the  description  show  this.  It 
is  called  a  kingdom.  It  fulfils  all  the  functions  and 
performs  all  the  offices  of  a  great  political  sovereignty. 
It  falls  on  other  governments,  crushes  them  out  of  ex- 
istence and  takes  their  place.  As  Tillinghast,  an  old 
Scotch  divine,  expresses  it :  ^'  This  is  a  kingdom,  in 


78  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

respect  of  nature  the  same  with  the  kingdoms  repre- 
sented by  the  great  image ;  that  is,  it  is  outward,  as 
they  are  outward,  which  appears — 

"  1.  From  the  general  scope  and  drift  of  the  proph- 
ecy, which  runs  upon  outward  kingdoms.  All  the 
first  four  kingdoms  or  monarchies  are  outward,  as 
none  can  deny ;  why,  then,  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  fifth  and  last,  should  so  far  vary  the  scope 
as  to  glide  from  the  outward  kingdom  to  the  inward 
ought  (besides  the  bare  say-so)  to  have  some  solid  and 
substantial  reason  brought  for  it  by  those,  whosoever 
they  are,  tliat  either  do  or  shall  assert  it. 

"  2.  Because  it  is  not  proper  to  say  that  a  bare  spir- 
itual kingdom,  considered  only  as  spiritual,  should 
break  in  pieces,  beat  to  very  chaff,  grind  to  powder, 
the  great  image — tliat  is,  destroy  the  very  being  of 
earthly  kingdoms — which  work  is  yet,  notwithstand- 
ing, done  by  this  stone.  Christ's  spiritual  kingdom 
may,  indeed,  by  that  light  and  life  which  it  gives 
forth,  much  refine  and  reform  outward  kingdoms; 
but  when  the  work  comes  to  breaking,  and  breaking 
in  pieces — that  is,  subverting  kingdoms,  razing  their 
very  foundations  and  destroying  their  very  being — as 
the  kings  of  this  world  here,  unless  we  conceive  God 
to  do  it  by  a  miracle  (which  is  not  spiritual),  must 
we  also  conceive  some  otlier  hand  besides  a  spiritual 
to  be  put  to  the  work. 

"  3.  Because  the  stone,  to  the  end  that  there  might 
not  be  a  vacancy  in  the  world,  comes  straightway  in 
the  place  and  room  of  the  great  image  so  soon  as  the 
same  is  totally  broken.     For  as  the  great  image,  while 


THE  FINAL  DO^IINION.  79 

standing,  bears  rule  over  all  the  earth,  so,  the  same 
being  broken,  the  stone  becomes  a  mountain,  and 
fills  the  whole  earth ;  therefore  must  the  kingdom  of 
the  stone  be  such  a  kingdom  as  was  that  of  the  great 
image — namely,  outward  ;  or  otherwise  the  coming  of 
that  in  the  place  of  the  other  now  taken  away  could 
not  supply  the  absence  of  the  other/^ 

Dr.  Berg,  from  Avhom  I  quote  this  argument,  re- 
gards it ''as  conclusive  that  the  nature  of  this  fifth 
power  is  outward,  corresponding  to  its  predecessors, 
and  not  merely  spiritual."  Nor  can  I  see  how  we 
can  do  justice  to  the  prophet's  description  without  so 
takino;  it.  And  if  there  were  no  foresrone  theories 
against  which  it  strikes  we  never  should  have  heard 
of  any  other  idea  than  that  this  kingdom  of  the 
stone  is  as  really  a  kingdom  as  that  of  Babylon, 
Persia,  Greece  or  Rome. 

Another  point  I  make  with  regard  to  this  stone 
kingdom  is  that,  though  truly  an  outward  and  visible 
kingdom  and  sovereignty,  it  is  entirely  supernatural. 
It  is  a  kingdom  which  ''  the  God  of  heaven  "  sets  up. 
God  was  concerned  in  the  setting  up  of  the  other 
kingdoms  also,  for  nothing  can  come  to  pass  without 
Him.  But  the  language  in  those  instances  is  dif- 
ferent. Daniel  said  to  Nebuchadnezzar,  "  The  God 
of  heaven  hath  given  thee  a  kingdom,  power,  and 
strength  and  glory;"  that  is  to  say,  God  gave  him 
the  natural  endowments,  the  providential  surround- 
ings, and  the  successes  of  battle  and  administration 
by  which  the  dominion  of  the  earth  was  for  the  time 
concentred  in  him.     God  irave  it  to  him  through  tlie 


80  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

instrumentality  of  liis  birth,  genius  and  arms.  But 
there  is  no  such  mediation  of  human  activities,  acci- 
dents and  conquests  in  this  case.  There  is  no  inter- 
mediate agency  whatever — no  giving  to  a  secondary 
actor.  Everything  of  this  sort  is  entirely  set  aside, 
and  ''  the  God  of  heaven  "  himself,  directly  and  ex- 
clusively, is  the  setter-up  of  this  kingdom.  Barnes 
properly  observes  that  "though  the  other  kingdoms 
here  referred  to  were  under  the  divine  control,  and 
were  designed  to  act  an  important  part  in  preparing 
the  world  for  this,  yet  they  are  not  represented  as 
deriving  their  origin  directly  from  Heaven.  They 
were  founded  in  the  usual  manner  of  earthly  mon- 
archies; but  this  was  to  have  a  heavenly  origin.'^ 

It  is  specifically  said  to  be  "cut  out  of  the  moun- 
tain without  hands.^^  No  human  agency  was  con- 
cerned in  bringing  it  into  being  or  into  the  action  as- 
signed to  it.  It  is  brought  forth  by  some  invisible, 
superhuman  power.  It  moves  forward  to  its  work 
without  the  help  of  any  other  potency  than  that  in- 
herent in  its  mystic  self,  by  which  also  it  expanded 
into  its  vast  proportions.  Some  suppose  that  the 
mountain  from  which  it  comes  is  named  for  the  sake 
of  verisimilitude  only,  and  is  not  to  be  regarded  as 
significant.  But  this  misses  one  of  the  sublimest 
ideas  in  the  whole  representation.  I  do  not  agree 
with  Augustine  that  this  primal  mountain  is  the  Jew- 
ish nation,  nor  with  others  that  it  means  the  hill-coun- 
try of  Judea.  Such  notions  belong  to  the  littlenesses 
of  interpretation  which  no  greatness  of  names  can  en- 
noble.    When   we  come   to  "The   Mountain"   in 


thJ^  final  dominion.  81 

such  a  description  as  this^  we  come  to  the  sublime  and 
eternal  Original  of  all  things,  to  the  heights,  massive- 
ness  and  eternal  permanency  of  immortal  Godhead. 
Mountains  always  tell  of  Deity  and  His  unshaken  om- 
nipotence. And  from  thence  this  stone  comes  forth 
without  the  aid  of  created  hands.  It  comes,  self-moved 
from  the  everlasting  granite  of  the  primal  heights,  to 
show  us  that  it  is  most  directly  and  intensely  super- 
natural, heavenly  and  divine. 

It  entirely  ends  and  supersedes  all  human  domin- 
ions. It  suddenly  sweeps  them  away  and  takes 
their  place.  A  popular  a^inotator  takes  its  action 
on  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  to  be  ''not  sudden 
violence,  but  a  continued  process  of  comminution  " 
stretching  through  ages.  The  same  is  repeated  in  a 
recent  book  of  lectures  on  these  prophecies.-  But  this 
is  another  of  those  human  glosses  imposed  on  the  di- 
vine word  to  save  an  untenable  rationalistic  theory. 
As  Nebuchadnezzar  saw  the  vision,  the  stone  "  smote 
the  image" — smote  it,  as  when  a  man  strikes  his  two 
hands  together  or  delivers  a  killing  blow — smote  it,  so 
that  the  iron  and  clay  upon  which  it  fell  "  brake  to 
pieces/'  as  a  vessel  of  pottery  is  broken  when  struck 
by  a  rock— smote  it,  so  that  every  part  of  the  great 
image  "  brake  to  pieces  together,  and  became  like  the 
chaff  of  the  summer  threshing-floor,  and  the  wind 
carried  them  away  that  no  place  was  found  for  them." 
If  this  is  not  "sudden  violence"— the  precipitation 
of  summary  destruction— the  quick  and  utter  demo- 
lition of  the  thing  smitten— there  is  no  power  in 
human  language  to   express  it.      The   whole  fabric, 

6 


82  VOICES  FROM  BABYi.ON. 

from  toe  to  scalp,  is  summarily  shattered  to  atoms, 
ground  to  powder,  scattered  to  the  winds,  leaving 
not  a  vestige  of  it  any  more  to  be  found.  And  as 
that  fabric  includes  in  it  all  mortal  dominion,  that 
kingdom  which  so  shatters  it,  and  takes  its  place, 
must  needs  be  supernal,  and  is  neither  originated  nor 
administered  by  mortal  hands  or  conquest. 

This  kingdom  is  supernatural  in  its  qualities.  It 
is  inalienable  and  eternal,  which  cannot  be  said  of 
ordinary  kingdoms.  It  fills  the  whole  earth,  whicli 
is  not  true  of  mere  earthly  empires,  though  called 
universal.  Not  one  of  them,  nor  all  of  them  to- 
gether, ever  "  filled  the  whole  earth." 

It  likewise  abides  perpetually  with  its  possessors. 
Human  dominion  is  ever  passing  from  one  potentate 
to  another  and  from  one  nationality  to  another. 
Monarchs  die  as  other  men,  and  their  dominion  is 
left  to  their  successors.  The  supremacy  never  re- 
mains with  one  people.  They  may  hold  it  for  a  long 
period,  but  others  are  meanwhile  developed,  and  they 
come  and  take  it,  and  none  can  say  them  nay.  But 
this  stone  kingdom  "shall  not  be  left  to  other  people.'^ 
It  cannot  be  alienated  from  those  who  possess  it.  The 
hands  that  hold  it  from  the  first  hold  it  perpetually. 
It  must  therefore  be  the  possession  of  a  people  over 
whom  death  has  no  power;  for  if  they  were  subject 
to  death,  it  could  not  be  said  that  the  kingdom  is 
never  left  to  other  people.  Firm  as  may  be  the  grasp 
with  which  this  world's  monarchs  hold  their  sceptres, 
death  breaks  it  and  the  dominion  passes ;  but  this  do- 
minion is  never  to  pass,  and  therefore  must  belong  to 


THE  FINAL  DOMINION.  83 

immortals.  Human  kingdoms  are  limited  in  dura- 
tion. Everything  earthly  has  a  termination.  The 
longest-lived  empires  dwindle  and  fade  away.  There 
is  no  mortal  rule  that  has  not  an  end.  But  this  stone 
kingdom  is  endless.  The  prophet  says,  ''it  shall  stand 
for  everJ'  Whilst,  therefore,  it  has  the  earth  for  its 
theatre,  and  is  a  true  and  visible  government  and 
kingdom,  it  must  needs  be  supernatural.  It  is  on  and 
over  the  earth,  for  it  fills  the  earth,  and  takes  the 
place  of  what  was  nowhere  but  on  earth ;  and  yet  it 
is  not  from  the  earth,  or  of  the  nature  of  earth,  or 
liable  to  any  of  the  accidents  or  changes  of  the  earth, 
or  of  the  fortunes  of  mortal  man  or  mortal  rule. 

What,  then,  is  to  be  understood  by  this  fifth,  or 
stone,  kingdom?  Alas  that  there  should  be  any  dif- 
ficulty or  diversity  on  this  the  chief  and  culminating 
portion  of  this  imperial  vision !  But  great  and  wide 
diversity  there  is,  and  hence  also  a  vast  amount  of 
unsound  and  erroneous  teaching  among  expositors. 

Some  say  that  this  stone  kingdom  is  the  United 
States!  A  learned  professor  of  a  theological  sem- 
inary, recently  deceased,  has  confidently  given  out 
that,  in  his  judgment,  "there  is  no  possibility  of 
evading  the  force  of  the  argument  which  identifies 
the  stone  kingdom  with  the  great  republic  of  North 
America"!  \Vith  equal  conclusiveness  he  might  have 
said  that  it  is  tlie  empire  of  Russia  or  the  republic  of 
Liberia.  Our  government  is  not  a  kingdom  at  all,  in 
any  proper  sense  of  that  word.  Neither  was  it  set  up 
by  the  God  of  heaven  any  more  than  was  Babylon,  or 
Persia,  or  Greece,  or  Rome,  or  any  other  sovereignty 


84  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

that  has  existed,  if  we  except  that  of  Israel.  It  has 
existed  one  hundred  years,  and  yet  it  never  fell  upon 
the  toes  of  the  great  image  as  explained  by  Daniel, 
nor  shattered  or  destroyed  any  kingdom  on  earth,  nor 
showed  capacity  for  crushing  out  all  other  govern- 
ments. It  is  not  able  to  govern  any  one  of  its  own 
great  cities  with  decent  respectability,  and  how  is  it  to 
take  the  rule  of  the  whole  earth  ?  It  is  itself  com- 
pounded of  the  miry  clay  and  iron  of  the  toes  of  that 
image  which  the  stone  is  to  dash  to  atoms  ;  and  how 
can  it  be  the  stone  which  does  this  crushino:?  So  far 
from  being  cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  hands, 
human  governments  planted  and  fostered  its  colonies, 
and  revolution  and  the  power  of  human  arms  and 
passions  wrought  it  into  an  independent  nationality. 
From  the  common  clay  of  humanity,  by  the  common 
])rocesses  in  the  formation  of  governments,  it  has  come 
into  being,  and  every  year  only  makes  it  the  plainer 
that  the  forces  of  decay  and  dissolution  are  rapidly 
gaining  on  the  forces  of  self-perpetuation.  Instead 
of  having  in  it  the  elements  of  inalienability  and 
eternity,  the  power  is  continually  passing  from  the 
sovereigns  of  to-day  to  other  j^eople.  Where  are  the 
Presidents,  representatives  and  voters  of  one  hundred 
years  ago?  There  is  also  every  intimation  of  the  or- 
dinary mortality  in  whatever  characterizes  our  gov- 
ernment. Indeed,  there  is  not  one  feature  in  all  the 
prophetic  description  but  is  contradicted  by  this  no- 
tion.    I  say  notion,  for  an  interpretation  it  is  not. 

More  commonly   is   it  held   and  taught  that  this 
stone  kingdom  is  Christianity.     This  is  in  the  line  of 


THE  FINAL  DOMINION.  85 

the  truth,  but  far  short  of  it.  The  stone  does  not 
here  come  upon  the  scene  until  the  time  of  the  clay 
and  iron  toes  of  the  great  image.  When  it  strikes 
the  colossus,  it  strikes  those  toes.  It  is  in  the  days 
of  these  toe-kingdoms  that  it  comes  and  does  the 
breaking.  But  Christianity,  in  its  greatest  vigor,  was 
set  np  full  four  hundred  years  before  the  Roman  em- 
pire was  divided  at  all,  and  a  still  longer  period  before 
those  toes  were  developed,  if  indeed  they  be  not  still 
future.  Christianity  is  a  religion,  a  system  of  truths 
and  moral  inculcations — a  \vorship ;  but  it  is  not  a 
state.  To  make  a  political  establishment  of  it  is  to 
pervert  it.  Neither  is  it  in  its  nature  to  smite  and 
destroy  earthly  authority  or  to  take  the  place  of  the 
civil  government.  It  never  struck  and  shattered 
secular  sovereignties ;  it  never  broke  any  kingdom. 
All  its  professors  are  under  bonds,  as  long  as  this 
present  world  lasts,  to  obey  rulers,  to  submit  them- 
selves to  kings  and  governors,  and  to  pray  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  civil  authority.  Talcing  the 
sword,  they  incur  the  pain  of  perishing  by  the 
sword.  By  their  principles  and  spirit  they  may 
temper  and  modify  governments,  but  to  seek  their 
destruction  is  treason  to  their  Lord  and  their  own 
salvation.  According  to  the  vision,  the  appearance 
of  the  stone  kingdom  was  followed  at  once  by  the 
complete  dissolution  of  the  whole  image  of  temporal 
dominion ;  but  Christianity  has  been  in  the  world 
more  than  eighteen  hundred  years,  and  no  damage 
has  it  ever  done  to  any  human  sovereignty  or  state. 
The  iron  empire  continued  on  for  four  hundred  years 


86  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

in  all  its  consolidated  power.  Its  division  into  its 
clay  and  iron  toes  was  not  caused  by  Christianity. 
And  it  still  lives  on  in  its  influences  and  modern 
forms,  as  little  in  danger  of  being  smitten  and  an- 
nihilated by  any  power  of  the  Gospel  as  ever  it  has 
been.  How,  then,  can  Christianity  be  this  stone  king- 
dom which  destroys  all  other  kingdoms  ?  Nay,  Chris- 
tianity is  not  an  outward  kingdom  at  all,  and  never  Avas 
intended  to  destroy  or  to  supplant  worldly  kingdoms. 
And  it  could  not  if  it  would.  Well,  also,  has  it  been 
asked  by  one  of  the  defenders  of  this  defective  theory, 
^'  If  the  reference  be  to  the  first  coming  of  Christ,  how 
could  Jesus  be  said  to  strike  against  a  form  of  the 
Roman  empire  which  did  not  then  exist?  And  how 
can  the  breaking  in  pieces  of  the  image  symbolize  the 
peaceful  character  of  His  mission  and  the  quiet  prog- 
ress of  His  cause  ?'^  In  vain  has  this  man  labored  to 
make  answer  to  his  own  questions.  Besides,  there  is 
not  an  appointment,  commission,  or  ordinance  of  Chris- 
tianity, as  we  now  have  them,  which  has  not  an  end  as- 
signed to  it.  By  their  own  ternis  these  are  every  one 
limited  to  this  age,  and  expire  at  the  coming  again  of 
the  Lord  Jesus.  They  are  in  no  sense  eternal.  But 
this  stone  kingdom  is  without  limit  or  end.  It  is  to 
^' stand  for  ever. ''^  By  no  possibility,  then,  can  it  be 
Christianity  as  now  in  the  world. 

What,  tlien,  is  this  stone  kingdom  ?  It  would  be 
passing  strange  if,  having  been  able  to  identify  so 
clearly  and  conclusively  the  several  stages  of  earthly 
dominion  symbolized  by  this  image,  we  should,  after 
all,  have  to  give  up  the  great  climacteric  of  the  vision 


THE  FINAL   DOMINION.  87 

as  beyond  identification.  But  I  do  not  see  why  any 
candid  student  of  the  Scriptures  shoukl  be  reduced 
to  so  sorry  a  predicament.  The  whole  Bible,  from 
the  first  chapters  of  Genesis  to  the  closing  words  of 
the  Apocalypse,  is  full  of  this  stone  kingdom.  As 
th^re  is  not  a  road  in  all  England  which  does 
not  lead  up  to  London,  so  there  is  scarce  a  passage 
in  all  the  volume  of  inspiration  which  does  not 
conduct  us  directly  to  this  stone,  and  to  the  very 
things  which  are  here-  so  graphically  signified  con- 
cerning it. 

Emanuel  Lacunza  in  his  day  could  say,  ^^All 
interpreters  of  Scripture,  so  far  as  I  have  had  it  in 
my  power  to  examine,  tell  us  that  the  stone  of  which 
this  prophecy  speaks  is  evidently  the  Messiah,  Jesus 
Christ  himself,  the  Son  of  God  and  the  son  of  the 
Virgin.  This  general  proposition  is  certain  and  in- 
dubitable." Our  Lord  speaks  of  himself  as  ^^the 
Stone  " — "  the  Stone  which  the  builders  rejected  " 
— the  Stone  on  which  whosoever  falls  shall  be  broken 
and  which  grinds  to  powder  him  on  whom  it  shall 
fall.  Prophets  and  apostles  speak  of  Him  under  the 
same  designation ;  and  we  may  consider  ourselves 
on  solid  ground  when  we  take  Him  as  the  head  and 
front  of  this  stone  kingdom  in  Nebuchadnezzar's 
vision. 

As  "  TJie  8tone,^'  Christ  occupies  three  different  re- 
lations to  three  different  classes. 

To  the  nation  of  Israel,  Isaiah  said  tliat  He  would 
be  "  a  stone  of  stumbling,  and  a  rock  of  offence,  for 
a  gin   and   for   a  snare   to   the   inliabitants   of  Jeru- 


88  VOICES   FROM  BABYLON. 

salem/^  so  that  many  among  them  should  *'  stumble, 
and  fall,  and  be  broken,  and  snared,  and  taken." 
Isa.  viii.  14,  15.  We  know  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  from  all  history  since,  how  this  was  ful- 
filled. He  was  ''  to  tlie  Jews  a  stumbling-block," 
says  Paul.  He  is  ''  a  stone  of  stumbling  and  a  r^ck 
of  ofTence,  even  to  them  which  stumble  at  the  word, 
being  disobedient,"  says  Peter.  Thus,  the  Jewish 
people  fell  upon  "  this  Stone  "  and  were  "  broken," 
This  is  the  first  relation  of  this  Stone,  although  not 
the  relation  referred  to  in  the  prophecy  now  in  hand. 
To  the  Church,  or  the  company  of  believers  in 
His  name,  His  relation  is  of  another  character.  He 
is  still  "  the  Stone/'  but  serving  in  this  case  a  very 
different  purpose.  Peter  describes  it  where  he  speaks 
of  believers  coming  to  their  Lord  ''as  unto  a  living 
stone,  disallowed  indeed  of  men,  but  chosen  of  God 
and  precious ;"  and  tells  them  that  on  Him  they, 
*'  as  living  stones,  are  built  up  a  spiritual  house,  an 
holy  priesthood,"  nay,  "  a  royal  priesthood,  an  holy 
nation,  a  peculiar  people."  1  Pet.  ii.  Whilst  carp- 
ing Jews  and  unbelievers  are  dashed  to  pieces  against 
this  Stone,  He  is  the  ''  tried  foundation  "  on  which 
those  who  receive  Him  are  built.  Accepting  Him, 
believers  are  joined  to  Him  and  to  one  another  into 
one  homogeneous  body,  with  one  destiny.  But 
neither  the  breaking  by  unbelief  nor  the  building 
by  faith  and  obedience  is  the  thing  M'hich  was  shown 
to  Nebwchadnezzar.  That  occurred  at  the  first  ad- 
vent, and  is  going  on  through  all  these  years  until 
He  returns  again. 


THE  FINAL  DOMINION.  89 

But  this  Stone  has  still  another  relation.  Christ 
himself  and  all  His  inspired  scribes  tell  of  it.  It 
is  His  falling  upon  and  grinding  to  powder  those 
rebellious  powers  who  stand  opposed  to  Him  when 
He  comes  the  second  time.  At  his  first  coming,  and 
during  all  the  present  dispensation,  His  whole  bear- 
ing, so  to  speak,  is  passive.  He  is  now  the  meek 
Lamb,  the  gentle  Saviour,  the  pitying  Redeemer, 
weeping  over  the  hard-heartedness  of  men,  and  not 
breaking  even  the  bruised  reed.  Men  in  their  un- 
belief dash  upon  Him  and  are  broken,  but  He  does 
not  fall  upon  them  to  crush  them.  Every  ingrat- 
itude, injury,  insult  or  persecution  He  patiently  bears, 
and  never  once  resents.  But  He  has  everywhere 
made  known  that  there  is  a  time  coming  when  the 
measure  of  suffering,  silence  and  forbearance  will 
be  filled  up  ;  when  this  Stone  shall  take  on  the  ac- 
tivities of  judgment ;  when  "  the  Lord  shall  go  forth 
as  a  mighty  man,  and  stir  up  jealousy  like  a  man 
of  war,  and  cry,  yea,  roar,  and  shall  prevail  against 
His  enemies."  It  is  of  that  period  He  says,  "  I 
have  long  time  holden  my  peace  ;  I  have  been  still 
and  refrained  myself;  now  will  I  cry  as  a  travailing 
woman  ;  I  will  destroy  and  devour  at  once,"  That 
is  "  the  day  that  shall  burn  as  an  oven,  and  all  the 
proud,  yea,  and  all  that  do  wickedly,  shall  be  stub- 
ble :  the  day  that  cometh  shall  burn  them  up,  saith 
the  Lord  of  hosts,  that  it  shall  leave  them  neither 
root  nor  branch.'^  Mai.  iv.  1.  When  this  Stone 
came  from  heaven  as  the  Virgin's  son,  through  tlie 
quietness  and  humility  of  Joseph's   home,  no   harm 


90  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

did  it  do  to  any  one.  If  many  afterward  made  ship- 
wreck upon  it,  the  blame  is  on  themselves,  '^for  the 
Son  of  man  came  not  to  destroy  men's  lives,  but  to 
save  them."  But  there  is  everywhere  a  time  spoken 
of  when  He  "  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven  with 
His  mighty  angels,  in  flaming  fire,  taking  vengeance 
on  them  that  know  not  God,  and  that  obey  not  the 
Gospel ;''  when  He  will  tread  '^  the  great  winepress 
of  the  wrath  of  God;"  when  He  will  "take  to 
Him  His  great  power  and  reign ;"  when  He  will 
^'  grant  to  him  that  overcometh  to  sit  with  Him  in 
His  throne,  even  as  He  also  overcame,  and  is  set 
down  with  His  Father  on  His  throne." 

Nor  can  there  be  a  reasonable  doubt  that  we  here 
have  the  fifth  kingdom  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  dream. 
Here  is  a  wonderful  Stone,  emphatically  the  Stone, 
cut  without  hands  from  the  mountain  of  eternal  God- 
head, harmless  and  passive  indeed  for  many  ages,  but 
the  while  developing  into  a  glorious  kinghood,  gath- 
ering a  mighty  population  infused  and  disciplined  by 
His  Spirit  and  mystically  incorporated  with  His  own 
person,  as  a  unique  and  multitudinous  empire  pres- 
ently to  be  revealed  in  invincible  majesty  and  power. 
Babylon,  Medo-Persia,  Macedon  and  Kome  were  each 
many  long  years  in  coming  to  be  what  they  appear  in 
the  vision.  In  each  instance  these  long  periods  of 
preparation  and  gradual  formation  are  assumed  in 
the  prophetic  delineation,  and  necessarily  implied. 
So  in  the  case  of  the  stone  kingdom  also.  The 
period  for  the  gathering  of  the  Church,  and  the  com- 
ing of  the  lively  stones  into  oneness   with  the  great 


THE  FINAL  DOMINION.  91 

Corner-stone,  answers  exactly  to  the  preliminary  and 
formative  periods  of  the  four  empires.  And  as  em- 
pires appear  in  the  vision  only  in  the  condition  and 
activity  of  matured  and  organized  kingdoms,  so  we 
are  to  seek  for  this  stone  kingdom,  not  in  the  time 
of  its  formation,  but  in  the  time  of  its  maturity, 
which  would  be  only  after  the  number  of  the  elect 
is  made  up,  and  all  are  fully  in  place  for  what  the 
kingdom  as  such  is  to  do  and  accomplish.  Christ  is 
the  mystic  Stone,  just  as  Nebuchadnezzar  was  that 
mystic  head  of  gold,  the  king  being  put  for  the  king- 
dom. The  power,  the  dominion  and  all  the  popula- 
tions of  Babylon,  as  a  state,  were  in  Nebucliadnezzar 
as  their  head  and  representative;  and  so  all  Chris- 
tians are  in  Christ,  participants  in  His  glory  and 
sharers  of  His  destiny.  But  the  whole  thing  is  only 
spiritual  as  yet.  Christ  was  born  to  be  a  King,  and 
for  this  purpose  came  He  into  the  Avorld ;  but  for  the 
present  He  is  "  as  a  man  travelling  into  a  far  country 
to  obtain  for  himself  a  kingdom,  and  to  return."  He 
is  gradually  getting  that  kingdom,  in  fact.  As  fast 
as  men  are  being  '^  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit " 
they  are  being  incorporated  into  a  grand  spiritual 
state.  It  is  unseen  as  yet,  as  the  Head  of  it  was 
received  up  out  of  human  sight;  but  He  is  not  with- 
drawn for  ever.  When  the  number  of  His  elect  is 
made  up  He  is  to  come  again,  bringing  His  saints 
with  Him.  Veiled  and  hidden  whilst  His  hosts  are 
being  gathered,  He  is  then  to  be  uncovered,  reveal- 
ed, seen,  manifested  in  power  and  great  glory.  His 
people  are  also  hidden  now.     No  one  surely  knows 


92  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

them,  and  the  great  body  of  them  is  not  in  the  world 
at  al].  But  the  sons  of  God  are  likewise  to  be  "  man- 
ifested.'^ When  their  royal  Head  shall  come  in  His 
glory,  and  sit  in  the  throne  of  His  glory,  then  shall 
they  also  "appear  with  Him  in  glory."  And  with 
regard  to  that  stage  of  affairs  the  descriptions  every- 
where answer  exactly  to  what  is  here  seen  and  af- 
firmed of  this  stone.  It  is  the  Church's  royalty 
and  kinghood  consummated  and  realized. 

It  is  a  true  and  proper  kingdom.  In  it  is  con- 
centred all  authority  and  power  for  our  world.  It 
is  to  dethrone,  break  in  pieces  and  cast  out  of  the 
earth  all  usurpers,  spoilers  and  resisters  of  its  prin- 
ciples and  authority.  It  is  formed  and  consolidated 
into  a  holy  and  invincible  commonwealth  by  no 
powers  of  man,  but  by  the  invisible  Spirit  of  God. 
It  is  made  up  of  immortals.  It  is  to  claim  and  take 
and  rule  the  earth  as  its  ow^n  possession,  redeemed 
and  purchased  with  the  blood  of  the  illustrious  Goel, 
who  is  its  everlasting  King.  It  is  to  extend  from 
sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  rivers  to  the  ends  of  the 
land.  Nothing  opposed  to  it  is  ever  to  be  tolerated 
within  its  glorious  territory.  It  is  never  to  pass  from 
its  possessors — never  to  revert  to  another  people.  Of 
its  glory  and  peace  there  is  to-be  no  end.  It  is  the 
kingdom  of  the  Stone — the  eternal  representative 
of  the  eternal  God.  And  from  age  to  age,  through 
all  the  ages  of  the  ages,  it  is  to  stand  and  grow  and 
expand,  without  diminution  and  without  end  !  There 
is  but  one  such  a  kingdom ;  and  it  is  the  sum  and 
fulfilment   of   all  prophecy,  the   crown   of  dispensa- 


THE  FINAL   DOMINION.  93 

tions,  the  grand  consummation  of  Jehovah's  admin- 
istrations toward  onr  world  ! 

It  is  of  this  kingdom  that  Isaiah  prophesied  when 
he  so  exultingly  sang:  "Unto  us  a  child  is  born, 
unto  us  a  son  is  given  :  and  the  government  shall  be 
upon  His  shoulder:  and  His  name  shall  be  called 
Wonderful,  Counsellor,  The  mighty  God,  The  ever- 
lastino;  Father,  The  Prince  of  Peace.  Of  the  in- 
crease  of  His  government  and  peace  there  shall  be 
no  end,  upon  the  throne  of  David,  and  upon  his 
kingdom,  to  order  it,  and  establish  it  with  judgment 
and  with  justice  from  henceforth  even  for  ever."  Isa. 
ix.  6,  7.  It  is  precisely  that  which  Gabriel  an- 
nounced when  he  said  to  Mary,  "Hail,  thou  that 
art  highly  favored,  the  Lord  is  with  thee:  blessed 
art  thou  among  women.  And  behold,  thou  shalt 
conceive  in  thy  womb,  and  bring  forth  a  son,  and 
shalt  call  his  name  Jesus.  He  shall  be  great,  and 
shall  be  called  the  Son  of  the  Highest:  and  the  Lord 
shall  give  unto  Him  the  throne  of  His  father  David : 
and  He  shall  reign  over  the  house  of  Jacob  for  ever ; 
and  of  His  kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end."  Luke  ii. 
26-33.  It  is  precisely  that  which  is  celebrated  in 
the  thanksgivings  of  heaven  by  the  great  voices  that 
finally  cry  their  triumphant  halleluias,  saying,  "  The 
kingdom  [sovereignty]  of  this  world  is  become  the 
kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ;  and  He 
shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever."  Rev.  xi.  15. 

And  yet  a  modern  doctor  publishes  to  the  world 
that  this  cannot  be,  because  "then  it  will  follow  that 
in  the  vision  given  to  Nebuchadnezzar  there  is  posi- 


94  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

tlvely  no  allusion  to  the  most  important  fact  in  the 
annals  of  humanity — the  Incarnation  '^  /  Inveterate 
stupidity !  As  though  the  existence  and  sovereign 
administrations  of  a  king  did  not  imply  that  he  was 
born ! — as  though  the  sublimest  consummation  and 
crown  of  our  Saviour's  work  does  not  carry  with  it 
every  fact  involved  in  the  constitution  of  such  a  Lord 
and  in  such  an  accomplishment!  As  well  might  we 
set  aside  what  the  vision  told  of  Nebuchadnezzar, 
Cyrus  and  Alexander,  becanse  "  there  is  positively 
no  allusion  "  as  to  how  or  where  or  under  what  con- 
ditions these  mighty  conquerors  came  into  existence ! 
How,  on  such  principles,  can  the  vision  refer  to 
Caesar,  since  "there  is  positively  no  allusion"  to  the 
fact  that  Ciesar  came  into  the  world  in  a  way  dif- 
ferent from  other  men!  I  w^onder  and. am  amazed 
when  I  see  on  what  slender  and  silly  grounds  the 
professed  teachers  of  God's  word  allow  themselves 
to  be  turned  away  from  its  sublimest  substance,  and 
to  be  cajoled  into  the  denial  of  many  of  its  plainest 
and  most  pregnant  texts.  But  no  such  boggling  can 
hinder  the  fulfilment  of  the  vision  to  its  utmost  let- 
ter. Twenty-five  hundred  years  have  added  their 
seal  of  demonstration  to  the  truth  and  accuracy  of 
the  prediction  as  res})ects  the  transient  empires  of  this 
world ;  and  how  can  it  fail  in  that  greater,  more  im- 
portant and  crowning  portion  respecting  the  immortal 
and  eternal  regency  which  is  soon  to  take  their  place? 
No  matter  what  reverend  unbelief  or  blatant  infidel- 
ity may  say,  let  us  remember  the  words  of  the  proph- 
et, that  "  the  dream  is  certain,  and  the  interpretation 


THE  FINAL  DOMINION.  95 

thereof  sure.'^  Our  cavilling,  skepticism  and  ratioD- 
aliziiiiT  will  not  alter  or  hinder  the  eternal  decrees 
of  Heaven.  From  the  beginning  of  earthly  empire 
Jehovah  has  made  known  the  coming  of  a  kingdom 
which  shall  break  in  pieces  and  consume  all  other 
kingdoms,  and  which  shall  stand  for  ever — a  king- 
dom of  which  the  God-man  is  to  be  the  Head  and 
King,  the  possessors  of  the  authority  of  which  are 
immortals,  and  the  establishment  of  which  in  our 
world  will  be  the  consummation  of  that  redemp- 
tion to  which  all  dispensations  look  and  for  which 
all  the  acres  wait. 


LECTURE   FIFTH. 

The  Golden  Memorial;  or,  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's Great  Image. 

Daniel  3 :  1-30. 

I  TAKE  Nebuchadnezzar  to  have  been  a  man  of 
a  deeper,  broader  and  nobler  nature  than  Napo- 
leon Bonaj^arte.  He  was  as  great  a  warrior,  and  a 
much  greater  emperor.  He  was  a  man  of  larger  intel- 
ligence, of  less  selfishness  and  of  a  much  more  generous 
and  earnest  mind.  He  was  impulsive  and  hasty  be- 
times, and  even  harsh,  but  his  impulses  were  not 
mere  passions,  and  were  generally  founded  upon  cor- 
rect reasonings.  He  was  quick  in  forming  conclu- 
sions, and  very  firm  in  carrying  them  into  effect.  He 
mostly  did  his  own  thinking,  and  spoke  and  acted 
officially  according  to  his  own  convictions,  no  matter 
against  whom  or  what  they  went.  He  was  a  heathen 
potentate,  absolute  in  his  authority,  but  he  had  a 
deep  religious  sense,  and  was  greatly  influenced  by 
it,  and  came  the  nearest  to  being  a  true  servant  of 
God  of  all  the  heathen  kings  of  whom  we  have 
any  account.  When  he  beheld  evidences  of  the  pres- 
ence and  power  of  God  he  noted  them,  acknowledged 
them,    and    fashioned    his    actions    accordingly.      He 

96 


THE   GOLDEN  MEMORIAL.  97 

had  a  conscience,  and  a  strong  perception  of  honor, 
duty  and  right.  When  he  gave  his  word  he  kept  it 
to  the  fulL  When  he  beheld  sham  and  falsehood 
he  was  severe  upon  it.  When  he  saw  the  divine 
Hand  he  bowed  before  it,  and  used  his  royal  place 
and  prerogatives  to  give  others  the  benefit  of  what 
he  himself  knew  and  felt.  When  convinced  that 
messengers  of  the  Most  High  were  before  him,  he 
honored  them  and  gave  glory  to  the  God  of  heaven, 
and  Avas  not  ashamed  to  make  confession  before  all 
men  of  what  his  heart  believed.  He  sometimes  for- 
got himself  in  the  midst  of  his  greatness  and  glory, 
and  took  to  himself  honors  which  evinced  an  over- 
weening pride;  but  when  punished  for  it  he  frankly 
confessed  it  and  proclaimed  it  to  the  whole  empire, 
that  men  might  know  and  fear  the  God  of  heaven. 
He  never  entirely  let  go  the  idolatry  in  which  he 
Avas  reared,  but  he  never  failed  to  hold  and  confess 
the  infinite  superiority  of  one  God,  even  the  God 
of  heaven,  over  all  the  idol  gods  of  his  kingdom. 
He  was  not  a  saint,  but  he  was  nearer  to  being  one 
than  some  who  profess  the  true  religion  and  have 
greater  opportunities  and  fewer  hinderances  than  he 
possessed. 

We  cannot  but  admire  his  reverent  ingenuousness 
and  appreciation  under  the  proofs  of  the  majesty  and 
mercy  and  help  of  God  in  the  matter  of  his  dream. 
Though  the  sublime  head  of  the  greatest  of  empires, 
no  false  dignity  prevented  him  from  prostrating  him- 
self before  the  young  prophet  in  acknowledgment 
of  the  one  Almighty  God,  and  of  young  Daniel  as 
7 


98  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

His  true  messenger.  Such  holy  services  as  his  hea- 
then education  and  ideas  suggested  he  at  once  com- 
manded to  l>e  rendered. 

Our  modern  savants  and  legislators  seem  to  think 
that  the  state  has  no  use  for  the  doctrines  and  coun- 
sels of  those  who  make  known  the  mind  and  will 
of  God ;  that  the  teachings  of  inspiration  had  better 
be  excluded  from  the  public  schools ;  and  that  the 
less  the  ministers  of  Bible  Christianity  have  to  say 
or  do  in  matters  of  education,  legislation  and  juris- 
prudence the  safer  for  the  community.  To  such,  of 
course,  it  was  a  great  weakness  in  Nebuchadnezzar 
to  think  and  believe  that  a  man  in  communion  with 
Heaven,  and  able  to  declare  the  rights  and  purposes 
of  the  Lord  of  kings  was  a  proper  person  for  the 
government  to  exalt  and  honor,  or  suitable  to  be 
made  a  counsellor,  judge  and  administrator  in  aftairs 
of  state,  or  fit  to  be  invested  with  the  presidency 
over  all  the  institutes  of  learning  and  schools  of 
wisdom.  That  God  pronounced  him  the  golden  head 
of  a  golden  kingdom  is  nothing  to  the  point  ;  he 
did  not  live  amid  the  wisdom  of  an  age  of  "  miry 
clay,"  and  how  could  he  be  a  right-reasoning  philos- 
opher? And  yet  I  take  his  side,  and  claim  that  it 
showed  his  good  sense  as  a  logician,  his  sound  policy 
as  a  king  and  his  just  feeling  as  a  man,  that  he 
bowed  adoringly  before  the  Spirit  of  inspiration; 
that  he  acknowledged  and  proclaimed  the  worshipful- 
ness  and  majesty  of  the  God  whom  it  attested  ;  and 
that  he  at  once  constituted  the  man  through  whom 
it  came  "  the  ruler  [sultan]  over  the  whole  province 


THE  GOLDEN  MEMORIAL.  99 

of  Babylon,  and  chief  of  the  governors  over  all  the 
wise  men  of  Babylon." 

The  facts  narrated  in  the  chapter  now  before  us 
are  generally  treated  as  an  unmitigated  blot  upon 
the  character  of  this  monarch.  Neither  do  I  in- 
tend to  defend  the  transaction ;  but  it  is  abundantly 
capable  of  being  construed  with  the  character  I  have 
ascribed  to  him,  and  without  the  supposition  of  a  re- 
lapse from  his  favorable  persuasions  concerning  the 
one  Almighty  God,  or  the  putting  of  him  down  as  a 
wilful  and  bloody  tyrant  and  persecutor. 

That  he  caused  some  sort  of  gigantic  figure  to  be 
erected  on  a  certain  plain  adjoining  the  city  of  Baby- 
lon, that  he  bestowed  vast  care  and  expense  upon  it, 
that  he  regarded  it  with  very  particular  reverence,  and 
that  he  made  its  dedication  a  very  grand  state  occa- 
sion,— are  facts  very  distinctly  affirmed.  That  he  ex- 
pected and  commanded  all  the  officials  of  his  king- 
dom to  manifest  the  reverence  for  it  which  he  thought 
to  be  due,  and  threatened  to  punish  those  who  should 
refuse  to  regard  his  wishes  and  appointments  in  the 
case,  is  equally  plain.  But  when  we  come  to  in- 
quire what  the  figure  was,  what  it  was  meant  to  rep- 
resent, what  the  king  intended  by  its  erection,  and 
what  was  the  precise  point  involved  in  the  act  of  rev- 
erence demanded  at  its  dedication,  the  ideas  are  nearly 
as  numerous  and  diverse  as  the  commentators,  and  a 
great  deal  of  far-fetched  guessing  has  been  done. 

Some  think  the  figure  was  a  likeness  of  his  father, 
Nabopolassar ;  others,  that  it  was  a  likeness  of  him- 
self; others,  that  it  was  an  image  intended  to  repre- 


100  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

sent  Bel^  the  great  Babylonian  deity ;  others,  that  it 
was  a  new  deity  of  his  own ;  whilst  Professor  Stuart 
considers  it  an  obelisk,  or  plain  shaft,  with  an  orb  at 
the  summit  representing  the  sun. 

The  reasons  which  moved  the  making  of  it  are  also 
variously  surmised.  Dr.  Gill  has  pretty  well  exhaust- 
ed the  common  conjectures  where  he  says:  "It  might 
be  out  of  pride  aud  vanity,  and  to  set  forth  the  glory 
and  stability  of  his  monarchy,  as  if  he  was  not  only 
the  head  of  gold,  but  as  an  image  all  of  gold,  and  to 
contradict  the  interpretation  of  his  dream,  and  avert 
the  fate  of  his  empire  signified  by  it;  or  to  purge 
himself  from  the  jealousies  his  subjects  had  enter- 
tained of  him  of  relinquishing  the  religion  of  his 
country  and  embracing  the  Jewish  religion  by  his 
praise  of  the  God  of  Israel  and  the  promotion  of 
Jews  to  places  of  trust  and  honor;  or  by  the  advice 
of  his  nobles  to  establish  uniformity  of  religion  in 
his  kingdom  and  prevent  the  growth  of  Judaism ;  or 
to  lay  a  snare  for  Daniel  and  his  companions." 

To  all  these  notions  the  Jewish  commentators  have 
added  still  another — to  w^it,  that  the  king  meant 
hereby  to  revive  what  was  attempted  in  the  matter 
of  the  Great  Tower  under  Nimrod,  which  had  been 
thwarted  by  the  miraculous  confusion  of  tongues. 
Any  one  of  these  suggestions  is  about  as  good  as 
another,  for  there  is  not  a  syllable  in  the  record  to 
prove  either. 

Searchino^  throuij^h  the  account  for  a  fresh  and  in- 
dependent  understanding  of  the  matter,  it  seems  to 
me  that  every  explanation  which  identifies  this  golden 


THE  GOLDEN  MEMORIAL.  101 

figure  with  any  of  the  national  gods  of  Babylon  is,di- 
rectly  against  the  narrative.     It  is  nowhere  named  as 
representing  a  Babylonian  god,  or  any  heathen  god 
whatever.     The  Chaldean  deities  had  their  particular 
priests  and  ceremonies  of  worship,  but  they  do  not 
appear    in    connection  with    the    peculiar   and    novel 
solemnity  of   the    unveiling   of   this    figure.      Three 
times  in  the  narrative  (verses  12,  14,  18) — once    by 
"certain  Chaldeans/'  once  by  the  king  himself,  and 
once  by  the  three  accused  Hebrews — the  worship  of 
the  acknowledged  deities  of  the  empire  is  specifically 
distinguished  from  the  adoring  prostration  command- 
ed in  this  instance.     This  "  golden-image  "  business  is 
also  given  in  immediate  connection  with  the  preceding 
chapter,  which  is  so  ill  suited  to  the  stereotyped  con- 
ceptions of  our  every-day  expositors  that  they  are  ne- 
cessitated to  suppose  an  interval  of  perhaps  sixteen 
years  between  the  dream  and  it,  in  order  to  give  the 
king  time  to  forget  his  vision  and  to  be  drawn  back 
again  from  his  semi-Judaism  into  the  full  spirit  and 
life  of  the  Chaldean  idolatry. 

As  I  read  the  narrative,  this  "  image  of  gold,"  and 
the  extraordinary  manner  of  its  dedication,  are  vitally 
connected  with  the  king's  vision,  and  related  fin*  more 
to  the  one  Almighty  God  of  Daniel  than  to  any  Chal- 
dean deity.  It  was  Nebuchadnezzar's  own  original 
thought,  suggested  by  the  revelation  which  was  vouch- 
safed to  him  from  Jehovah,  and  meant  to  be  an  official 
and  national  memorialization  of  that  Lord  of  kings 
and  Revealer  of  secrets  who  had  thus  shown  him  the 
character,  succession,  and  fate  of  all  earthly  empire. 


102  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

So  far  from  being  the  result  of  a  change  in  his  mind 
and  feelings,  or  an  obliteration  of  his  convictions  as 
described  in  the  preceding  chapter,  this  whole  busi- 
ness was  the  direct  fruit  of  those  convictions,  and  the 
way  his  heathen  mind  took  to  express  and  materialize 
what  impressed  him  so  profoundly.  God  had  shown 
him  a  great,  bright  and  terrible  image.  He  had 
learned  from  God's  unmistakable  prophet  that  it  was 
a  divine  symbol  of  God\s  wisdom,  power  and  prov- 
idence in  the  world,  from  his  own  em})ire  to  the  end 
of  time.  It  w^as  so  remarkable  in  itself,  and  so  sub- 
limely sacred  in  all  its  connections,  relations  and  im- 
pressiveness,  that  it  was  impossible  that  he  should 
forget  it,  or  that  he  should  not  think  of  making  some 
memorial  of  it,  particularly  as  it  related,  first  of  all, 
to  himself  and  his  own  empire.  He  had  felt  it  right 
and  due  that  he  should  prostrate  himself  before  that 
spirit  of  Almightiness  which  showed  itself  in  his 
dream,  and  in  the  prophet  who  had  recovered  and 
expounded  that  dream ;  and  why  should  not  all  the 
heads  of  his  kingdom  be  summoned  to  do  tlie  same? 
The  thing  was  all  mixed  up  with  what  we  would 
expect  in  a  vigorous  heathen  mind  under  such  ex- 
periences and  convictions ;  but  it  was  a  most  natural 
outcome  of  a  great,  honest  and  original  thinker  under 
the  circumstances.  It  was  a  new,  sublimer  and  more 
knowing  God  than  all  Chaldea's  deities  which  he  meant 
to  honor.  Tlie  figure  he  set  up  was  not  that  God,  but 
it  was  the  matei-ialization  of  the  wonderful  image 
which  that  God  had  shown  him,  and  which  was  that 
God's  own  symbol  of  His  great  power  and  adminis- 


THE  GOLDEN  MEMORIAL.  103 

tratioiis  on  the  earth.  Heathen  as  he  was,  liow  could 
he  better  memorialize  this  Jehovah-power  than  in  Je- 
hovah's own  picture  of  it,  of  which  picture  he  him- 
self and  his  empire  were  divinely  said  to  be  the  golden 
head  ?  And  with  the  Jehovah-power  thus  memorial- 
ized after  the  fashion  of  its  own  showing  to  him  in 
the  dream,  what  more  natural  than  that  all  his  em- 
pire, through  its  constituted  representatives,  '^  the 
princes,  the  governors,  and  the  captains,  the  judges, 
the  treasurers,  the  counsellors,  the  sheriffs,  and  all 
the  rulers  of  the  provinces,"  should  be  officially  con- 
vened to  witness  the  unveiling  of  the  figure,  and  to 
go  through  the  ceremony  of  falling  down  before  it 
in  lowly  homage,  as  he  himself  had  bowed  before  the 
Spirit   of  that  Jehovah-power  in   Daniel? 

This  view  of  the  case  fully  explains  every  partic- 
ular in  the  record,  and  serves  to  show,  not  a  debased 
and  oblivious  apostasy  on  the  part  of  the  honest-mind- 
ed king,  but  that  the  impression  the  revelation  made 
upon  him  became  a  living  power  in  his  soul,  which 
set  his  great  and  original  genius  to  work  to  bring  his 
whole  empire  into  some  sort  of  official  accord  with  it. 
It  was  neither  the  work  of  a  fanatical  zealot  of  Bel- 
Merodach,  nor  of  a  tool  of  envious  idolaters,  nor  of 
an  arbitrary  despot  capriciously  bent  on  changing  the 
religion  of  his  empire,  nor  of  a  tyrannical  and  self- 
deifying  egotist,  nor  of  a  weakling  in  the  hands  of 
a  set  of  grasping  Chaldean  priests.  On  the  contrary, 
it  w^  the  work  of  a  great,  deep-thinking,  honest- 
minded,  self-poised  and  noble-meaning,  imperial  man, 
who  had  had  a  true,  sublime  and  unmistakable  rev- 


104  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

elation  from  the  God  of  heaven,  and  who,  under  the 
devout  and  powerful  impulses  which  it  engendered, 
yet  not  entirely  released  from  his  heathen  methods 
of  thinking,  laid  hold  upon  his  vast  authority  and 
riches  to  give  what  he  regarded  as  a  d.ue  and  fitting 
national  acknowledgment  and  m-emorial  of  the  great 
Jehovah-power  which  had  thus  communicated  with 
him.  Hence  this  gigantic  image  of  gold  set  up  in  a 
plain  quite  apart  from  the  Chaldean  temples.  Hence 
the  special,  peculiar  and  intensely  national  character 
of  its  dedication.  Hence  the  novel  ceremonies  of  the 
occasion,  and  the  imperial  decree  that  at  the  appoint- 
ed signal  every  office-bearer  in  the  realm  should  fall 
down  in  lowly  adoration  before  it.  And  hence,  also, 
the  very  severe  penalty  fore-announced  to  come  upon 
any  one  who  sliould  refuse  to  acknowledge  and  adore 
that  Jehovah-power  under  the  symbol  which  that 
Power  had  shown  him  in  the  vision. 

In  this  view  of  the  matter  we  are  not  only  obliged 
to  modify  our  judgment  of  the  king's  character,  so 
as  to  give  him  far  higher  credit  than  that  which  re- 
sults from  the  current  representations,  but  the  same 
goes  a  great  way  toward  his  justification  in  the  sever- 
ity he  used  in  enforcing  obedience  to  his  decree. 

Under  the  clear  and  full  light  of  revelation  and 
the  divine  institutes,  which  Nebuchadnezzar  did  not 
have,  it  is  very  plain  that  he  made  a  great  mistake, 
which  can  by  no  means  be  justified  or  excused  on 
Biblical  grounds ;  but  the  mistake  was  in  the  methods 
and  not  in  the  motives.  It  was  the  mistake  of  de- 
fective education,  not  of  intent.     He  meant  it  hon- 


THE  GOLDEN  MEMORIAL.  105 

estly,  to  acknowledge  and  glorify  that  very  God  of 
heaven  who  had  so  remarkably  communicated  with 
him.  He  intended  that  his  empire,  through  all  its 
assembled  representatives,  should  thus  acknowledge 
that  God  in  a  tangible  copy  of  the  image  given  in 
the  dream.  All  the  depths  of  his  religious  nature, 
experiences  and  convictions  would  thus  rise  up  to 
insist  upon  the  duty  and  propriety  of  compliance 
with  what  he  had  so  devoutly  and  honestly  arranged 
and  commanded.  Was  not  the  God  over  all  gods 
and  the  Lord  over  all  kings,  who  had  so  fully  demon- 
strated His  living  power  and  purposes,  to  be  rever- 
ently confessed  by  all  lords  and  rulers?  Was  not 
that  image  the  very  likeness  of  that  in  which  Jeho- 
vah had  symbolized  His  divine  powder  and  provi- 
dence? Had  not  the  king  had  ample  proof  that  this 
God  is  God  of  gods  and  Lord  of  kings?  Was  it 
not  right,  therefore,  that  every  officer  of  the  realm 
should  be  required  to  give  this  token  of  reverent 
acknowledgment  to  Him? 

Besides,  taking  this  figure  as  the  materialization  of 
the  great  image  of  the  king's  inspired  dream,  there 
was  to  him  a  very  sacred  identification  of  himself 
and  his  dominion  with  it.  According  to  the  prophet's 
explanation  of  the  vision,  that  gold  represented  Neb- 
uchadnezzar and  his  divinely-authenticated  rule  and 
authority.  To  refuse  obedience  to  his  commands  con- 
cerning it  therefore  took  on  something  of  the  element 
of  treason  and  rebellion,  not  only  to  Nebuchadnez- 
zar's authority,  but  likewise  to  that  very  Divinity 
which  had  so  marvellously  indorsed  his  sovereignty 


106  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

as  given  of  God,  who,  by  His  own  divine  presenta- 
tions, had  inseparably  connected  it  with  the  image  the 
king  had  thus  niateiiallzed.  Not  to  obey  his  solemn 
and  devoutly-intended  command  would  thus  neces- 
sarily present  itself  to  him  as  a  very  great  wicked- 
ness— a  stab  at  divinely-authenticated  sovereignty — 
a  setting  at  naught  of  the  very  golden  head  of  all 
divinely-invested  kings — a  casting  of  contempt  upon 
the  most  serious  and  sacredly-founded  undertakings 
of  his  life,  as  w^ell  as  a  criminal  light-making  of  all 
the  sacred  experiences,  convictions  and  devout  inten- 
tions of  His  Imperial  Highness.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances the  man  would  not  have  been  a  man,  or 
at  all  up  to  the  requirements  of  the  situation,  or  en- 
titled to  the  ordinary  credit  of  sincerity  and  sensibil- 
ity as  an  administrator  of  the  government,  if  he  had 
affixed  no  stern  penalties  to  a  disregard  of  his  orders, 
or  only  connived  at  the  transgression  of  them.  If 
his  foundation  was  wrono^,  his  reasonina^  was  rip^ht. 
Even  our  own  free  government  permits  no  man  to 
take  office  under  it  without  oath  on  the  Holy  Testa- 
ments of  God  or  solemn  affirmation  and  appeal  to  the 
Almighty  Lord  of  all,  and  annexes  very  rigid  penal- 
ties to  the  violation  of  the  same.  From  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's standpoint  it  was  but  right,  and  no  tyrannical 
harshness,  that  he  should  insist  on  punishing  capitally 
whosoever  should  refuse  the  homage  which  he  exact- 
ed. The  fault  was  not  in  the  exaction,  but  in  the 
heathen  error  of  undertaking  to  materialize  divine 
things. 

On  the  part  of  the  Chaldeans  there  could  be  no 


THE   GOLDEN  MEMORIAL.  107 

scruple  agains^t  a  ready  compliance  with  the  imperial 
edict.  They  believed  in  a  multiplicity  of  gods,  and 
were  accustomed  to  worship  them  in  statues,  symbols 
and  graven  devices.  The  falling  down  before  this 
ncAv  imase,  even  if  it  did  connect  with  a  new  and 
supreme  God,  was  a  matter  of  no  serious  account 
to  them,  since  it  involved  no  abandonment  of  the 
old  gods  and  worship  of  the  empire.  Even  Neb- 
uchadnezzar himself  seems  to  have  taken  in  the  God 
of  heaven,  not  as  exclusive  of  all  other  gods  and 
worship,  but  rather  as  the  Athenians  set  up  an  altar 
To  the  Unhioicn  God  alongside  of  many  other  altars. 
Even  if  he  did  regard  the  prophet's  God  as  the  one 
Almighty  Jehovah,  he  had  not  come  so  far  as  to  dis- 
allow national  and  tutelary  gods  beside  Him.  And 
thus  there  was  nothing  whatever  to  hinder  his  hea- 
then officials  from  falling  down  before  this  image 
the  same  as  before  any  other  sacred  statue,  partic- 
ularly when  their  lives  depended  on  it. 

But  it  was  different  with  Shadrach,  Meshach  and 
Abednego.  From  their  standpoint,  no  other  gods 
were  allowable,  nor  the  worship  of  any  likeness  of 
anything  in  heaven  or  earth.  They  would  therefore 
have  to  go  against  their  religion  and  their  consciences 
to  fall  down  and  worship  the  image  as  the  king  com- 
manded. Even  though  the  thing  was  honestly  meant 
as  a  great  national  acknowledgment  of  the  Jehovah- 
power,  they  still  could  not  be  true  to  their  religious 
principles  and  join  in  this  prostration.  The  Sinaitic 
law  and  all  the  institutes  of  Moses  forebade  as  well 
the  worship  of  the  true  God  in  graven  images  as  the 


108  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

worship  of  idols.  A  pious  and  faithful  Jew  could 
no  more  bow  down  to  a  likeness  of  God,  no  matter 
whence  copied  or  derived,  than  bow  down  to  the  idol 
gods  of  Babylon.  Therefore,  when  the  rest  of  the 
assembled  nobles  and  officers,  at  the  sound  of  the 
music,  prostrated  themselves  adoringly  before  the 
image  of  gold,  these  men  remained  standing.  They 
did  not  serve  the  false  gods  of  their  conquerors,  and 
they  would  not  now  debauch  themselves  with  a  false 
worship  even  of  their  own  God. 

It  Avas  a  very  subtle  temptation  which  thus  came 
upon  these  young  rulers,  particularly  if  the  king 
meant  hereby  to  do  national  reverence  to  the  Je- 
hovah-power. Was  it  not,  in  some  sense,  an  act  of 
homage  to  the  God  whom  they  served  ?  Was  it  not 
a  wonderful  concession  of  an  idolatrous  empire  to 
the  God  of  heaven  ?  Had  not  the  image  been  copied 
from  the  vision  which  that  God  himself  had  shown  ? 
Was  not  that  gold  the  divine  symbol  of  the  king 
and  2:overnment  which  it  became  them  as  sfood  sub- 
jects  to  obey  ?  Had  not  the  king  been  very  good 
and  generous  toward  them  ?  They  were  envied 
strangers  at  best,  and  why  should  they  be  so  sin- 
gular in  such  a  small  particular,  and  run  the  risk 
of  being  accused  to  their  master  and  burnt  in  the 
furnace  ?  Living,  they  might  be  of  great  service 
to  their  captive  brethren,  but  provoking  the  wrath 
of  their  sovereign,  they  would  only  be  forfeiting  their 
own  lives  and  entailing  greater  hardships  upon  those 
with  whom  they  most  sympathized.  Why,  then, 
hazard   such  interests   by  disobedience   to  their  gra- 


THE  GOLDEN  MEMORIAL.  109 

cious  king  ?  Might  they  not,  at  any  rate,  direct  their 
thou<j:hts  to  the  true  God  in  heaven  even  while  bow- 
ing  down  to  this  image  upon  earth  ?  And  over 
against  such  specious  suggestions  there  was  nothing 
but  the  simple  command,  "Thou  shall  not  bow  down 
thyself  to  them^  But  it  was  the  command  of  God, 
who  is  above  all  kings,  and  no  argument  or  earthly 
price  or  subtle  glosses  could  induce  them  to  disregard 
it.  Let  their  enemies  accuse  them  if  they  would  ; 
let  the  king  upbraid  them  as  ingrates,  traitors,  rebels, 
or  even  as  enemies  of  their  own  God  ;  let  him  strip 
them  of  their  offices,  disgrace  them,  imprison  tliem 
or  roast  them  in  his  ovens, — their  minds  were  made 
up  ;  their  resolution  was  inflexible ;  they  would  obey 
God  rather  than  man,  though  they  should  be  burnt 
to  ashes  before  the  glass  had  run  another  hour. 
Therefore  they  kept  their  feet  unflinchingly,  though 
all  Babylon  fell  prostrate  in  adoration. 

Heroes  were  they,  and  models  for  all  young  men 
and  all  others  when  matters  of  conscience  and  faith- 
fulness to  God  and  truth  are  at  stake.  A  true  man 
in  a  case  of  clear  duty  will  never  sell  himself  for  any 
price.  He  cannot  be  bought  for  gold  or  place  or 
favor.  No  bribes  can  allure  him,  no  sophistries  can 
impose  on  him,  no  fires  or  furnaces  can  turn  him. 
His  soul  is  welded  to  unchanging  Omnipotence,  and 
nothing  can  break  down  his  integrity.  Had  the  re- 
ligious character  of  these  youths  been  made  of  the 
fragile  stuif  which  so  readily  passes  for  piety  in  our 
day,  we  never  should  have  read  their  names  in  this 
holy  Book.     But  they  had  a  faith   which  had  sub- 


110  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

stance  in  it,   and  it    fashioned  them   into    illustrious 
models  for  their  day  and  for  all  after  time. 

Where  Daniel  was  on  this  occasion  we  are  not  told. 
Perhaps  he  was  sick,  as  he  sometimes  was,  and  could 
not  be  present.  Perhaps  he  had  duties  assigned  him 
in  some  other  part  of  the  empire  from  which  he  could 
not  be  spared.  Perhaps  his  presidency  of  the  learn- 
ed orders  excused  him,  as  only  the  officers  of  state 
were  summoned  for  this  occasion.  Had  he  been  pres- 
ent, we  may  be  sure  that  he  would  have  taken  his 
stand  precisely  as  did  his  three  noble  friends.  He 
could  not  consistently  have  done  otherwise. 

But  the  eyes  of  self-seeking  and  jealous-hearted 
men  are  apt  to  find  other  employment  than  that  of 
devotion,  even  while  in  the  act  and  attitude  of  pro- 
fessed worshippers.  And  it  often  happens  that  those 
who  make  the  loudest  pretensions  are  the  most  sinis- 
ter and  heartless.  "  Certain  Chaldeans  '^ — those  very 
men  who  fain  would  be  considered  the  most  devoted — 
were  watching  these  Hebrew  youths,  and  under  cloak 
of  superior  devotion  pressed  for^vard  to  make  charges 
of  irreverence  and  impiety  against  them.  No  hon- 
est-minded man  is  ever  safe  with  these  over-devoted 
people. 

Nebuchadnezzar  was  particularly  enraged  when  he 
learned  that  Shadrach,  Meshach  and  Abednego  had 
failed  to  obey  his  orders — not  only  because  he  had  so 
highly  favored  and  exalted  them,  but  because  from 
them,  least  of  all,  had  he  expected  a  refusal  to  join 
in  a  ceremony  meant  to  be  in  honor  of  tlieir  God. 
That  any  in  the  realm  should  dare  to  disregard  his 


THE  GOLDEN  MEMORIAL.  Ill 

imperial  decree  so  publicly  and  in  his  very  presence 
Avas  indignity  unpardonable;  but  that  it  should  come 
from  such  a  quarter  caused  his  royal  fury  to  rise  very 
high.  He  summoned  them  before  him.  He  indi- 
cated his  displeasure.  He  laid  his  stern  commands 
upon  them  with  his  own  lips.  He  was  about  to  repeat 
the  ceremony  for  the  special  purpose  of  testing  their 
obedience.  He  gave  his  imperial  word  that  he  would 
burn  them  up  in  a  furnace  of  fire  that  very  hour  if 
they  should  dare  to  refuse  the  act  of  homage  he  en- 
joined^ admonishing  them  that  even  God  himself 
should  not  be  able  to  deliver  them  from  his  ven- 
geance. 

But  their  calm  and  unflinching  answer  was,  "O 
Nebuchadnezzar,  we  are  not  careful  to  answer  thee 
in  this  matter.  If  it  be  so,  our  God  whom  we  serve 
is  able  to  deliver  us  from  the  burning  fiery  furnace, 
and  He  will  deliver  us  out  of  thine  hand,  O  king. 
But  if  not,  be  it  known  unto  thee,  O  king,  that  we 
will  not  serve  thy  gods,  nor  worship  the  golden  im- 
age which  thou  hast  set  up.'' 

The  die  was  cast.  The  king's  fury  was  full.  The 
furnace  was  fired  to  its  utmost  heat,  and  Shadrach, 
Meshach  and  Abednego  were  bound  hand  and  foot 
and  cast  into  it.  So  intense  were  the  flames  that  the 
very  officers  who  cast  them  in  were  scorched  to 
death. 

The  inspired  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
tells  of  some  in  ancient  times  who,  "through  faith, 
quenched  the  violence  of  fire."  And  here  was  an 
instance    of    it.     The    cords    that   bound    these    men 


112  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

were  at  once  burnt  off,  but  nothing  else  about  them 
would  burn.  The  king  looked,  and  there  they  were, 
loose,  and  moving  in  the  midst  of  the  fire,  with  no 
hurt  whatever  upon  them  !  Nay,  more ;  only  three 
were  cast  in,  and,  behold  !  a  fourth  was  with  them, 
and  He  so  ilkistrious  in  form  and  mien  that  He 
appeared  to  the  king  like  a  son  of  the  gods.  The 
monarch's  rage  instantly  turned  to  amazement.  He 
cried  out  with  wonder.  He  could  not  believe  his 
own  eyes,  but,  rushing  "  to  the  mouth  of  the  fur- 
nace,''  he  called  to  the  men:  '' Shadrach,  Meshach, 
and  Abednego,  ye  servants  of  the  most  high  God, 
come  forth,  and  come  hither."  And  out  of  the  midst 
of  the  fire  they  came.  Around  them  gathered  '^  the 
princes,  governors,  and  captains,  and  the  king's  coun- 
sellors," and  they  all  looked  and  wondered,  and  saw 
and  were  convinced  that  not  a  blister  or  scar  of  burn- 
ins:  was  on  the  bodies  of  these  heroic  men,  ^'  nor  was 
a  hair  of  their  heads  singed,  neither  were  their  coats 
changed,  nor  had  the  smell  of  fire  passed  upon 
them." 

A  great  and  notable  miracle  of  Israel's  God  was 
that  day  wrought  in  Babylon,  and  all  the  officers  and 
nobles  and  princes  of  the  empire  were  made  the  wit- 
nesses and  heralds  of  it. 

Skeptical  criticism  has  railed  out  against  all  this,  as 
showing  too  much  of  the  wonderful  to  be  believed. 
But  with  the  Almighty  one  thing  is  no  harder  than 
another.  He  can  make  a  blazing  sun  in  the  heavens 
with  as  much  ease  as  make  a  daisy  in  the  meadow. 
Some  have  urged  that  it  was  unfitting  the  Deity  to 


THE   GOLDEN  MEMORIAL.     '  113 

show  such  wonders  here.  But  who  can  decide  what 
is  and  what  is  not  becoming  to  a  Being  whose 
thoughts  no  man  can  fathom  ?  And  when  we  con- 
sider that  millions  of  His  chosen  people  were  then  in 
servitude  in  that  empire;  that  the  great  object  of  their 
being  there  was  to  purge  them  of  their  idolatries;  that 
no  ordinary  ministries  for  this  purpose  existed ;  that 
here  was  a  great  and  mighty  people  that  knew  not 
God  destitute  of  anv  effectual  means  of  beino^  made 
acquainted  with  His  superior  majesty  and  power;  and 
that  here  was  an  assembly  of  all  their  heads  and 
chiefs,  who  would  thus  be  made  to  see  His  signs  and 
to  become  the  attestators  and  heralds  of  the  miracle 
to  all  parts  of  the  mighty  reahii, — there  certainly 
would  seem  to  be  reason  enough  that  here  and  now, 
if  anywhere  or  ever,  the  greatest  wonders  of  the  God 
of  heaven  should  be  enacted.  Who  can  say  that  there 
was  not  ample  occasion  for  just  such  a  display  of  the 
eternal  omnipotence  ?  And  see  also  the  effect.  It  so 
turned  out  that  the  white-heated  fires,  which  would 
not  act  on  the  bodies  of  these  men  of  God,  served 
to  send  forth  a  glorious  light  into  all  the  earth.  The 
king  lifted  up  his  hands  and  cried,  '^  Blessed  be  the 
God  of  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abednego,  who  hath 
sent  His  angel,  and  delivered  His  servants  that  trust- 
ed in  Him  !"  A  decree  went  forth  from  the  throne  to 
"  every  people,  nation,  and  language,"  reciting  the 
wonder,  proclaiming  the  majesty  of  Jehovah,  and 
forbidding,  on  pain  of  death,  the  speaking  of  "  any- 
thing amiss  against  the  God  of  Shadrach,  Meshach, 
and  Abednego.''     And  these  men  were  thenceforward 


114  •       VOICES  FROM  BABYLON 

promoted  and  honored  by  the  empire  as  the  living 
witnesses  of  the  living  God. 

Many  are  the  lessons  which  this  record  teaches.  On 
the  whole  front  of  it  there  flames  in  letters  of  blazing 
gold  that  there  is  an  almighty,  living  and  independent 
God,  unbound  by  Nature's  laws  and  unlimited  to  nat- 
ural forces,  whose  word  is  written  in  His  Book,  whose 
eye  is  upon  His  confiding  servants,  and  who  will  never 
leave  nor  forsake  them  that  put  their  trust  in  Him ! 

From  the  inmost  spirit  of  it  there  comes  the  proc- 
lamation that  if  any  kings  or  dignitaries  or  commands 
of  Church  or  State  go  against  Jehovah's  laws,  or  de- 
mand obedience  against  His  word,  or  undertake  to 
keep  conscience  for  the  human  soul,  no  true  man  of 
God  dare  obey  them,  nor  shall  he  be  the  loser  for  his 
fidelity,  no  matter  what  penalties  he  may  incur! 

Around  it,  and  on  all  sides  of  it,  there  sounds  the 
admonition  to  every  right-meaning  young  man,  how- 
ever prosperous  he  may  be,  to  prepare  for  fiery  times. 
The  world  is  under  an  erring  rule — a  rule  which  often 
makes  the  greatest  blunders  when  it  means  the  best. 
Envious  and  malicious  eyes  are  watching  you,  and 
eager  to  show  their  superior  devotion  by  accusing  you 
and  bringing  you  into  trouble.  The  way  of  faithful- 
ness often  lies  through  the  fiery  furnace,  heated  seven- 
fold to  consume  you.  Therefore  prepare  for  fiery 
times,  and  think  it  not  strange  when  they  come. 

And  in  the  whole  make-up  of  it  there  stands  me- 
morialized for  ever  that  the  only  true  expedieney  is  in- 
fiexlble  principle.  It  matters  not  for  immediate  con- 
sequences.    God  will    make  all   right  in  the  end  to 


THE  GOLDEN  MEMORIAL.  115 

them  that  stand  fast  to  trutii  and  duty.  They  are, 
after  all,  the  true  heroes,  and  shall  not  fail  of  their 
rewards. 

''  The  earth  may  drink  their  gore ;  tlieir  limbs 
May  sodden  in  the  sun  ;  their  heads 
Be  hnng  on  castle-walls  and  city-gates ; 
But  still  their  spirit  walks  abroad ; 
Their  names  are  in  the  Book  of  God  ; 
Their  honor  is  for  ever  !" 


LECTURE    SIXTH. 

The    Great    Man    Humbled;    or,    The 
King's    Insanity. 

Daniel  4: 1-37. 

"VU'  E  have  seen  tliat  the  God  of  Iieaven  was  pleased 
'  *  to  select  Nebuchadnezzar  as  the  organ  of  a  re- 
markable revelation  touching  the  history  and  end  of 
worldly  empire.  We  need  not  wonder,  therefore, 
that  he  should  also  be  the  writer  of  one  of  the  chap- 
ters in  the  sacred  volume. 

The  long  passage  which  I  have  read,  and  upon  the 
consideration  of  which  we  now  enter,  is  entirely  from 
his  pen.  If  he  did  not  write  it  with  his  own  hand, 
he  dictated  it  and  gave  it  fortli  as  his  waiting  and 
proclamation.  It  is  also  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
sections  in  this  Book.  It  is  the  only  complete  .state 
pa])er  which  has  come  down  to  us  from  those  early 
times.  It  gives  an  account  of  the  experience  of  a 
very  great  king,  the  official  confession  of  his  offence 
in  unduly  exalting  himself,  a  narration  of  the  warn- 
ing that  was  given  him  before  it  occurred,  of  the  sin- 
gular punishment  and  humiliation  which  came  upon 
him  for  it,  and  of  the  manner  of  his  recovery  and  res- 
toration. It  is  the  royal  sermon  of  an  illustrious 
monarch,  given  forth  from  his  throne  to  teach  his 
subjects  the  majesty  and  dominion  of  the  Lord  God 

116 


THE  GREAT  MAN  HUMBLED.  117 

Almighty,    and   His    claims   to   the    reverence,    fear, 
worship  and  obedience  of  all  men. 

It  was  not  the  first  decree  of  this  remarkable  sove- 
reign touching  the  honor  of  Jehovah,  but  it  is  the  most 
ample  and  the  most  significant.  The  time  to  which 
it  relates  was  doubtless  long  subsequent  to  the  occur- 
rences narrated  in  the  preceding  chapter.  Nebuchad- 
nezzar reigned  about  forty-three  years,  and  the  inti- 
mations of  the  record  are  that  he  was  at  this  period 
well  through  with  the  many  enormous  public  works 
which  marked  his  administration,  and  the  remains  of 
which  are  still  to  be  found.  (See  verses  22,  30.)  The 
document  itself  seems  to  have  been  transcribed  by 
Daniel  from  the  archives  of  the  empire,  and  from 
thence  inserted  bodily  into  this  collection  of  sacred 
wonders.  There  are  four  leading  particulars  in  it  to 
which  I  invite  your   attention  : 

I.    The  hinges  jpi'ophetic  forewarning ; 
II.   His  offenoe ; 

III.  His  punishment ; 

IV.  His  recovery  and  restoration. 

And  may  God  help  as  to  contemplate  the  same  to 
our  profit  and  edification! 

I. 

The  ancients  had  a  very  intense  respect  for  omens 
and  tokens.  The  disposition  to  observe  such  things 
is  one  of  the  deepest  feelings  of  human  nature,  and 
is  one  of  the  proofs  that  a  strong  religious  vein  is  in- 
serted in  the  very  constitution  of  nian.  The  most 
gigantic  and   inveterate  superstitions  have  grown  up 


118  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

upon  it,  and  nothing  has  ever  been  able  entirely  to 
eradicate  it.  And  whilst  most  of  these  systems  are 
basely  idolatrous,  mischievous  and  degrading,  and 
are  therefore  to  be  held  in  abhorrence  by  every  good 
man,  the  fact  still  remains  that  God  does  thus  betimes 
interfere  for  the  government  and  guidance  of  men, 
the  withdrawing  of  them  from  danger  and  sin,  and 
the  direction  of  them  in  cases  which  are  unreached 
by  other  means.  The  divine  Word  is  the  Christian's 
great  and  infallible  guide.  To  this  he  must  at  all 
times  look,  and  to  this  he  must  ever  contentedly  and 
obediently  conform.  It  is  through  this  that  God's 
hand  is  lifted  up  to  direct  us  in  the  way  of  right, 
safety  and  peace.  It  also  becomes  a  great  sin  and 
distrust  of  God  to  be  on  the  lookout  for  any  other 
light  or  to  commit  ourselves  to  any  other  directory. 
And  yet  the  fact  cannot  be  suppressed  that  special 
])resentiments  and  foretokens  are  continually  occur- 
ring in  human  experience,  proving  the  existence  of 
a  special  providence,  and  that  there  are  occasions  in 
which  the  hand  of  an  ever-gracious  Jehovah  does 
show  itself  in  extraordinary  methods.  Especially  in 
great  danger  or  impending  calamity  there  is  often 
some  mysterious  foreshadowing  of  it  to  put  people 
on  their  guard  and  to  divert  them  from  peril.  So 
it  was  in  Nebuchadnezzar's  case. 

The  king  had  another  startling  dream.  It  came 
this  time  quite  independently  of  his  own  thoughts, 
and  apart  from  any  ascertainable  earthly  cause  or 
connections.  His  own  account  of  it  is :  "  I,  Neb- 
uchadnezzar, was  at  rest  in  mv  house,  and  flourish- 


THE  GREAT  MAN  HUMBLED.  119 

ing  in  my  palace."  He  had  been  successful  in  his 
wars  and  in  all  his  administrations.  His  enemies 
had  all  been  effectually  subdued,  and  everything  was 
quiet  and  prosperous  in  his  empire.  He  had  suc- 
ceeded in  making  Babylon  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
world.  Everything  to  which  he  had  laid  his  hand 
had  turned  out  favorably.  There  remained  nothing 
more  to  be  desired  to  satisfy  his  largest  ambition  as 
a  man  or  to  add  to  his  glory  as  a  great  and  wise 
kinp;.  And  while  he  was  thus  at  rest  in  his  house 
and  flourishing  in  his  palace  this  dream  came  to  him. 
He  '^saw,  and  behold  a  tree  in  the  midst  of  the  earth, 
and  the  height  thereof  was  very  great.  The  tree 
grew,  and  was  strong,  and  the  height  thereof  reached 
unto  heaven,  and  the  sight  thereof  to  the  end  of  all 
the  earth ;  the  leaves  thereof  were  fair,  and  the  fruit 
thereof  much,  and  it  was  meat  for  all :  the  beasts  of 
the  field  had  shadow  under  it,  and  the  fowls  of  the 
heaven  dwelt  in  the  boughs  thereof,  and  all  flesh  fed 
of  it."  From  among  the  mysterious  heavenly  agen- 
cies there  appeared  one  who  "  cried  aloud,  and  said, 
Hew  down  the  tree,  and  cut  off  his  branches,  shake 
off  his  leaves,  and  scatter  his  fruit :  let  the  beasts  get 
away  from  under  it,  and  the  fowls  from  his  branches  : 
nevertheless  leave  the  stump  of  his  roots  in  the  earth, 
even  with  a  band  of  iron  and  brass,  in  the  tender 
grass  of  the  field  ;  and  let  it  be  wet  with  the  dew  of 
heaven,  and  let  his  portion  be  with  the  beasts  in  the 
grass  of  the  earth :  let  his  heart  be  changed  from 
man's,  and  let  a  beast's  heart  be  given  unto  him ; 
and  let  seven  times  pass  over   him."      And   it  was 


120  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

further  added  by  the  mysterious  speaker  that  this 
was  "  the  decree  of  the  watchers,  and  the  demand  by 
tlie  word  of  the  holy  ones,  to  the  intent  that  the  liv- 
ing may  know  that  the  Most  High  ruleth  in  the  king- 
dom of  men,  and  giveth  it  to  whomsoever  he  will." 

Though  the  king  was  utterly  at  a  loss  to  under- 
stand the  meaning  of  this  dream,  it  is  plain,  from  the 
very  terms  of  it,  that  it  was  meant  to  give  him  a 
serious  admonition  and  threat  against  pride  and  self- 
glorification,  declaring  all  possessions,  power  and 
greatness  to  be  God's  gifts,  distributed  according  to 
His  will,  and  ever  to  be  gratefully  acknowledged  as 
proceeding  only  from  His  sovereign  goodness — in- 
dicating at  the  same  time  the  speedy  humiliation  of 
those  who  give  themselves  the  glory  for  what  they 
have,  achieve  or  enjoy.  So  also  was  it  interpreted  by 
the  pro])het,  who  told  the  king  that  this  vision  re- 
lated to  him,  that  it  was  a  divine  forewarning  of 
calamities  to  come  upon  him,  and  that  the  only  pos- 
sible way  of  escaping  them  was  to  be  admonished  by 
it  to  humble  himself  before  God,  to  break  off  his 
sins  by  righteousness,  and  his  iniquities  by  showing 
mercy  to  the  poor.     (See  verse  27.) 

Some  have  wondered  that  he  should  send  again  for 
"  the  magicians,  the  astrologers,  the  Chaldeans,  and 
the  soothsayers "  after  their  miserable  failure  on  a 
former  similar  occasion.  But  it  must  be  remembered 
that  Daniel  was  now  for  a  long  time  the  appointed 
head  and  master  of  these  orders  (ii.  4;  iv.  9;  v.  11), 
and  tliat  in  summoning  them  the  king  necessarily  in- 
cluded   him,  and   most    likely   had   him   specially  in 


THE  GREAT  MAN  HUMBLED.  121 

mind.  You  will  also  notice  that  he  came  in  this  in- 
stance without  any  personal  summons.  The  reason 
of  his  coming  was  the  same  decree  which  had 
brought  the  others.  But  he  sent  them  first,  and 
himself  remained  in  the  background  until  they  had 
tried  their  skill  and  proved  their  incompetency.  The 
king  says  of  all  these  ^'  wise  men  of  Babylon  '^  that 
he  "  told  the  dream  before  them,  but  they  did  not 
make  known  the  interpretation  thereof."^  If  they 
ventured  to  say  anything,  they  utterly  failed  to  sat- 
isfy him.  "  But  at  the  last/'  says  the  king,  "  Daniel 
came  in  before  me,  Belteshazzar  by  name,  in  whom 
is  the  spirit  of  the  holy  gods,  and  before  him  I  told 
the  dream."  A  w^onderful  testimony  to  the  feeling- 
ness,  the  courtesy  and  the  courtly  faithfulness  of  the 
prophet  is  also  given  by  the  king.  Having  related 
the  dream  to  him,  the  king  says,  "  Daniel  was  as- 
toniecl  for  one  hour,  and  his  thoughts  troubled 
him ;"  neither  did  he  say  a  word  till  encouragingly 
entreated  by  the  king  not  to  hesitate,  but  to  tell  out 
the  whole  interpretation  without  fear  or  alarm. 
Whereupon  the  faithful  prophet  answered  :  "  My 
lord,  the  dream  be  to  them  that  hate  thee,  and  the 
interpretation  thereof  to  thine  enemies ;''  and  then 
proceeded  to  expound  the  sore  ])ersonal  calamities 
which  God  had  thus  pre-intimated,  exhorting  the 
king  to  such  duties  as  would  most  contribute  to 
ward  off  the  threatened  disaster. 

Nebuchadnezzar  was  thus  fully  forewarned.  God, 
by  means  of  the  dream  and  the  honest  interpretation 
and   comments  of  the  prophet,   had   foreshown   him 


122  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

what  would  be  the  result  of  indulging  in  too  proud  a 
spirit  over  his  greatness,  or  of  a  failure  to  acknowledge 
and  adore  the  Lord  Almighty  as  the  sublime  Governor 
of  the  nations  and  the  Source,  Giver  and  Sustainer  of 
all  that  any  man  possesses. 

II. 

We  would  suppose  that  such  a  sacred  and  impres- 
sive forevvarning  .and  admonition  could  not  fail  of  the 
most  salutary  effect.  But  there  is  nothing  more  treach- 
erous and  deceitful  than  poor  depraved  human  nature. 
Nebuchadnezzar  doubtless  intended  to  profit  to  the  full 
from  the  counsel  he  had  received.  He  had  the  utmost 
confidence  in  the  wisdom  and  inspiration  of  the  prophet. 
He  had  every  reason  to  accept  the  whole  presentation 
as  a  veritable  message  from  God.  Nor  was  it  in  the 
composition  of  this  monarch's  character  to  make  light 
of  so  evident  a  communication  from  the  Deity,  wliose 
signs  and  wonders  he  had  beheld.  But  it  is  hard  for 
rich  and  great  men,  in  the  midst  of  their  glories, 
powers,  flatteries  and  cares,  to  be  true  and  faithful  to 
all  that  they  know,  feel  and  confess  of  their  duty  and 
of  what  is  right  and  proper.  The  Saviour  and  His 
apostles  have  remarked  upon  the  great  difficulty  of 
such  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  And  Nebu- 
chadnezzar was  not  an  exception.  If  ever  man  had 
reason  to  take  honor  to  himself  and  to  be  proud  of 
his  achievements,  it  was  this  king;  and  if  ever  such 
a  man  was  kept  from  this  sin  in  such  a  case,  it  could 
only  be  by  the  most  marvellous  power  of  divine 
jrrace. 


THE  GREAT  MAN  HUMBLED.  123 

I  have  alliiclecl  to  some  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  great 
achievements.  There  never  was  a  more  successful 
conqueror.  There  never  was  a  sublimer  earthly  king. 
There  never  was  a  more  magnificent  empire  than  that 
which  he  consolidated  and  established.  There  never 
was  a  more  absolute  human  lord  of  this  world  than 
he.  Even  to  this  day  the  whole  territory  of  Babylon, 
north,  south,  east  and  west,  tells  of  him,  and  attests 
the  grandeur  of  his  reign  beyond  that  of  any  one 
other  man  that  has  lived.  Babylon  was  a  distinguished 
city  before  his  day.  Ninus  and  Semiramis  are  said 
to  have  done  much  to  make  it  illustrious.  But  the 
Babylon  of  Nebuchadnezzar  was  tenfold  more  what  he 
found  it  than  the  Rome  of  Augustus  Caesar  was  more 
than  the  preceding  Rome  of  the  Republic,  or  than 
the  Paris  of  the  Napoleons  was  more  than  the  Paris 
of  the  First  Revolution.  The  old  Babylon  occupied 
but  one  side  of  the  river ;  Nebuchadnezzar  re-formed 
it  on  that  side,  and  extended  it  to  equal  greatness  on 
the  other,  connecting  the  two  with  splendid  bridges, 
lining  the  river  with  walls  and  gates,  and  surround- 
ing the  whole  w^ith  tremendous  enclosures,  such  as 
perhaps  never  existed  anywhere  but  there.  He  built 
a  second  palace,  a  very  wonder  of  architecture,  the 
grounds  of  which  were  ornamented  with  those  famous 
artificial  mountains  and  hanging  gardens  constructed 
in  imitation  of  the  Median  hills  which  his  Median 
wife  so  missed  in  the  flat  country  around  Babylon. 
But  this  Avas  only  a  fraction  of  his  works.  Explorers 
report  the  ruins  of  Babylonia  as  spread  over  two 
liundred   square    miles,   and   that    nine-tenths    of   the 


124  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

bricks  found  all  over  this  space  are  stamped  with 
Nebucliadnezzar's  name.  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson 
writes :  ''  I  have  examined  the  bricks  in  situ  belong- 
ing, perhaps,  to  one  hundred  different  towns  and 
cities  in  the  neighborhood  of  Bagdad,  and  I  never 
found  any  other  legend  than  that  of  Nebuchadnez- 
zar, son  of  Nabopolassar,  king  of  Babylon."  Another 
of  these  indefatigable  antiquarians,  the  Rawlinsons, 
writes :  "  It  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  but  for 
Nebuchadnezzar  the  Babylonians  would  have  had 
no  place  in  history.  At  any  rate,  their  actual  place 
is  owing  almost  entii-ely  to  this  prince,  wdio  to  the 
military  talents  of  an  able  general  added  a  grandeur 
of  artistic  conception  and  a  skill  in  construction 
which  place  him  on  a  par  with  the  greatest  builders 
of  antiquity." 

Now,  with  all  on  his  hands  and  engaging  his 
thoughts  and  energies  which  this  would  imply,  it 
is  not  remarkable  that  his  attention  should  be  drawn 
away  from  his  dream  and  its  moral  monitions,  or  that 
his  heart  should  be  very  greatly  elated  over  his  mag- 
nificent achievements.  Where  is  the  public  man 
among  us  who  coidd  be  entrusted  with  such  glory 
without  having  his  head  completely  turned  and  his 
self-consequence  lifted  higher  than  the  stars? 

Full  a  year  had  now  passed  since  the  king  had 
the  dream,  and  received  the  interpretation  and  ad- 
monition of  the  prophet.  He  was  walking  upon  the 
high  places  of  his  palace,  the  enclosure  of  whose 
walls  was  six  miles  square,  ornamented  with  battle- 
ments and  towers.     All  around  and  beneath  him  lay 


THE   GREAT  MAN  HUMBLED.  125 

tlie  city  witli  its  grand  avenues  and  one  liundred 
mighty  gates.  He  looked  and  admired,  and  said, 
'^  Is  not  this  great  Babylon,  that  I  have  built  for  the 
house  of  the  kingdom  by  the  might  of  my  power,  and 
for  the  honor  of  my  majesty  f 

As  men  ordinarily  reckon  and  speak,  there  wonld 
not  seem  to  be  maeh  out  of  the  way  in  such  a  re- 
mark. It  was,  above  all  men,  his  work.  Babylon 
was  a  great  and  glorious  city,  and  it  had  come  to  be 
what  it  was  chiefly  through  him.  As  we  hear  men 
refer  to  their  works  and  doings,  we  would  ex})ect 
any  of  them  to  express  themselves  after  the  same 
style.  I  know  of  none  who  would  not  speak  in  the 
same  way,  and  with  much  the  same  emotions,  under 
the  same  circumstances.  But  this  only  shows,  not 
that  Nebuchadnezzar  was  innocent,  but  that  humanity 
all  over  is  very  perverted  and  wrong.  It  will  leave 
God  out  of  everything  creditable  wherever  it  can. 
It  will  parade  its  own  puny  self,  powers  and  achieve- 
ments whenever  occasion  presents.  It  loves  to  con- 
template what  it  has  done.  If  in  anything  it  favor- 
ably diifers  from  one  or  another  or  from  the  general 
mass  of  men,  it  inwardly  gloats  over  it  and  rejoices 
itself  in  its  superiority,  not  remembering  Who  it  is 
that  maketh  it  to  differ,  and  whose  alone  is  the  credit 
and  honor  for  it  all.  And  Nebuchadnezzar  fell  into 
the  common  oflPensive  and  criminal  mistake  which 
so  deeply  inheres  in  all  unsanctified  humanity.  Tak- 
ing a  survey  of  his  magnificent  honors  and  achieve- 
ments, he  refers  them  exultingly  to  himself — to  his 
own    genius,   strength  and    wisdom — and    leaves  out 


126  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

that  eternal  Providence  without  which  he  was  no 
more  than  the  meanest  beggar  or  tlie  dirtiest  dog  in 
all  his  kingdom.  He  had  himself  confessed  that, 
of  a  truth,  Jehovah  is  God  of  gods  and  Lord  of 
kings.  He  had  heard  the  heavenly  "  watcher  "  say, 
and  Daniel  repeat,  that  it  was  his  duty,  as  that  of 
all  men,  to  know  and  realize  that  it  is  the  Alost  High 
that  ruleth  in  the  kingdom  of  men  and  giveth  it  to 
whomsoever  He  will.  But  in  the  moment  of  trans- 
port over  what  had  been  accomplished  through  his 
instrumentality  he  forgot  all  this,  and  set  everything 
down  to  his  own  credit.  He  knew  better,  as  all  men 
know  better  when  they  do  such  things,  but  when  he 
looked  on  the  glory  of  the  city  he  had  so  exalted 
and  adorned,  his  pride  and  vain-glory  got  the  mastery 
over  all  his  better  knowledge  and  the  prophetic  warn- 
ings, and  his  soul  was  lifted  up  in  exultation  over 
his  own  wisdom  and  might.  The  gracious  God 
above,  from  whom,  apart  from  any  worth  or  deserv- 
ings  of  his,  he  had  all  that  distinguished  him  from 
any  other  member  of  the  race,  was  completely  thrown 
out  of  his  reckoning.  And  thus  he  lent  his  soul  and 
speech  to  a  miserable  atheistic  pride,  which  seems  to 
have  been  this  man's  besetting  sin — the  besetting  sin 
of  all  human  greatness  and  success — which  reached 
its  culmination  as  he  thus  walked  and  sjjoke  amid 
the  towers  and  battlements  of  his  glorious  palace. 

III. 
But  our  God  is  a  jealous  God,  and  His  glory  will 
He   not  give  to  another.     They  that  walk  in   pride 


THE  GREAT  MAN  HUMBLED.  127 

He  also  is  able  to  abase,  as  Nebuchadnezzar  soon 
i'ound  out  to  his  sorrow.  The  ^'  watclier  "  had  said, 
Hew  down  tlie  towering  tree  to  its  stump;  let  the 
heart  of  him  whom  it  represents  be  unmanned,  let 
the  soul  so  brutish  have  his  portion  with  the  beasts, 
till  seven  times  pass  over  him  ! 

Twelve  months  of  trial  and  oi)portunitv  for  reform 
were  given.  God  is  slow  in  the  execution  of  His 
threatenings,  and  very  long-suffering  to  usward.  But 
when  wickedness  has  come  to  the  full  His  visitations 
are  apt  to  be  terrifically  sudden.  And  so  it  was  in 
this  instance.  "  While  the  Avord  '^ — the  God-ignor- 
ing word — "  was  in  the  king's  mouth  there  fell  a 
voice  from  heaven :  O  King  Nebuchadnezzar,  to 
ihe^  it  is  spoken,  the  kingdom  is  departed  from  thee; 
and  they  shall  drive  thee  from  men,  and  thy  dwell- 
ing shall  be  with  the  beasts  of  the  field  ;  they  shall 
make  thee  to  eat  grass  as  oxen,  and  seven  times 
shall  pass  over  thee,  until  thou  know  that  the  Most 
High  ruleth  in  the  kingdom  of  men,  and  givetli  it 
to  whomsoever  He  will.  And  the  same  hour  was 
the  thing  fulfilled  upon  Nebuchadnezzar.'^ 

Precisely  what  this  punishment  was  we  may  n(^t 
be  able  to  tell,  but  by  consulting  the  records  of  med- 
ical science  we  may  still  come  to  some  reasonably 
ac(;urate  idea  of  it.  That  it  was  a  species  of  insan- 
ity would  seem  to  be  implied.  With  reference  to 
his  recovery  the  king  says,  ^^  mine  understanding  re- 
turned unto  me/'  which  cannot  well  mean  anything 
else  than  that  he  had  been  in  some  sense  and  degree 
demented. 


128  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

Mania  and  lunacy  take  on  very  many,  and  often 
very  curious,  forms.  Among  others  is  a  certain  mel- 
ancholic alienation,  in  which  the  subjects  fancy  them- 
selves animals,  and  set  themselves  to  act  and  live  as 
the  particular  creatures  they  imagine  themselves  to 
be.  Cases  are  on  record  from  very  early  times,  and 
are  still  of  common  occurrence,  in  which  persons 
take  on  the  belief  that  they  are  wolves,  dogs,  lions, 
cats,  cocks  and  the  like,  reproducing  in  themselves 
the  habits  of  these  creatures.  An  alienation  of  this 
sort  seems  to  be  referred  to  by  Virgil  in  his  sixth 
Eclogue^  in  which  persons  are  represented  as  lowing 
like  cattle,  looking  for  their  horns,  fearing  to  be 
yoked,  and  ranging  the  pathless  woods  as  veritable 
bovine  creatures. 

The  expressions  with  regard  to  Nebuchadnezzar — 
that  his  heart  was  made  like  the  beast's,  that  a  beast's 
heart  was  given  him,  that  his  dwelling  was  with  the 
wild  asses,  that  he  did  eat  grass  as  oxen — would  seem 
to  identify  his  affliction  with  this  form  of  mental  dis- 
ease. The  rest  of  the  description  w^ould  also  accord 
entirely  with  such  an  affection.  And,  although  its 
occurrence  is  rare,  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  it  was  brought  upon  the  king  by  the  foretold 
and  special  judgment  of  God,  who  was  at  no  loss  to 
fill  out  every  particular  in  the  account.  AYith  this 
fact  given,  it  does  not  rest  on  us  to  show  that  the 
affection  was  wholly  natural,  or  that  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  things  one  suffering  thus  for  seven  years 
might  still  be  curable.  The  affliction  was  meant  to 
be  extraordinary,  and  the  falling  of  it  within  a  cate- 


THE  GREAT  MAN  HUMBLED.  129 

gory  of  common  aiFections,  tliough  with  peculiar  features 
of  its  own,  serves  the  double  purpose  of  showing  that 
it  was  not  at  all  unlikely  on  the  one  hand,  and  that  it 
was  not  a  mere  natural  disorder  on  the  other. 

The  affliction  likewise  ran  in  direct  contrast  witli 
the  offence  of  which  it  was  the  punishment.  The 
king's  self-congratulation  was,  in  princi])le,  an  un- 
godding  of  the  Deity,  and  he  was  visited  with  a  de- 
humanizing of  the  man.  He  put  himself  and  his 
own  agency  above  the  Lord  of  kings  or  into  His 
place,  and  God  put  him  in  the  brute's  place,  and 
even  into  a  sub-brutish  humiliation.  He  had  un- 
duly glorified  his  own  genius,  and  God  turned  that 
genius  into  the  low  instinct  of  an  ox  that  eateth 
grass,  as  helpless  and  as  base  as  if  he  had  never 
been  a  man  at  all.  And  the  description  throughout 
exhibits  one  of  the  most  melancholy  and  horrible 
afflictions  that  could  well  come  upon  a  human  being, 
to  say  nothing  of  so  sublime  a  potentate  as  Nebu- 
chadnezzar. 

Think  of  that  king,  the  sovereign  of  the  earth, 
the  grandest  genius  of  his  age,  who  had  written  his 
name  in  conquests  and  constructions  the  fame  of 
which  still  echoes  and  resounds  through  all  the 
world — think  of  him  as  he  that  day  w^alked  the 
ramparts  of  his  palace,  the  most  honored  and  suc- 
cessful man  that  lived,  the  golden  head  of  the  golden 
empire  in  its  golden  age — think  of  him  as  he  looked 
forth  to  the  rising  of  the  sun  and  to  the  setting  there- 
of, and  numbered  all  the  nations  on  whom  its  rays 
fell  as   his   own  subjects   and  tributaries — and  then 


130  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

come  hitlier  to  these  wild  morasses.  Behold  here 
among  the  cattle  the  figure  of  a  man,  who  for  these 
many  long  years  has  avoided  all  human  habitations. 
See  him  feeding  on  the  young  grass  with  the  oxen, 
lierding  with  them,  lowing  like  them  and  esteeming 
himself  one  of  them.  Observe  his  nails  coiled  around 
his  toes  and  fingers  like  eagles'  claws.  Mark  his 
nakedness,  his  matted  hair  and  beard,  the  feathery 
and  swine-like  bristles  that  hang  from  his  body. 
Note  his  dull  expression,  his  avoidance  of  the  pres- 
ence of  man,  his  refusal  to  hear  or  answer  anything 
that  any  human  being  may  say  to  him.  Look  at  his 
revolting  beastlike  mien  and  beastlike  habits  and  mim- 
icries of  all  beastlike  ways.  Contemplate  the  obsti- 
nacy with  which  he  resists  being  housed,  how  thor- 
oughly enchanted  he  is  with  his  beastly  condition  and 
associations,  and  how  profound  is  his  persuasion  that 
he  is  a  beast,  and  that  everything  human  had  better 
keep  far  from  him.  Is  this  a  man?  Will  you  call 
it  a  king?  Does  it  look  to  you  like  a  mighty  con- 
queror, before  whom  the  nations  stand  in  awe? 
Would  you  suppose  it  the  builder  of  great  Babylon 
and  author  of  those  riches  and  wonders?  Can  such 
an  object  be  the  possessor  of  a  sceptre  which  sways 
dominion  over  all  the  earth?  Would  it  ever  enter 
your  thoughts  that  this  is  th.e  sublime  and  matchless 
golden  head  of  all  human  empire?  Can  it  be  the 
great  Nebuchadnezzar?  Ah  me!  it  is  even  so,  and 
this  is  the  punishment  which  the  Almighty  hath  sent 
upon  him  for  ignoring  his  Maker  and  taking  to  him- 
self honor  which  belong^s  alone  to  Jehovah.     Verilv, 


THE  GREAT  MAN  HUMBLED.  131 

"it  is  a  fearful  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
living  God." 

IV. 

"Seven  years"  was  this  terrible  humiliation  of  the 
vain-glorious  king  to  last.  Whether  such  an  aifection 
is  ordinarily  curable  after  so  long  a  standing  we  need 
not  inquire.  It  came  as  a  special  judgment  of  God, 
and  its  duration  was  determined  in  advance  by  the 
same  power  which  brought  it  upon  him.  It  is  enough 
to  know  that  the  man  recovered,  returned  to  his 
throne,  and  lived  to  tell  his  subjects  and  to  record 
for  all  time  the  facts  in  the  case. 

Whether  the  king  retained  his  inner  consciousness 
during  this  great  calamity  we  cannot  fully  determine. 
The  medical  records  refer  to  cases  of  corresponding 
aifection  in  which  neither  consciousness  nor  memory 
was  seriously  impaired,  though  the  patients  per- 
sisted in  maintaining  that  now  they  were  beasts,  and 
wondered  that  any  should  not  so  regard  them.  Dr. 
Browne,  the  eminent  commissioner  of  the  Board  of 
Lunacy  for  Scotland,  gives  it  as  his  opinion,  made 
up  from  an  experience  of  thirty  years  in  the  treat- 
ment of  mental  alienations,  that  "the  idea  of  personal 
identity  is  but  rarely  enfeebled,  and  that  it  is  never 
lost."  He  says  :  "  All  the  angels,  devils,  dukes,  lords, 
kings,  ^  gods  many,'  that  I  have  had  under  my  care 
remained  what  they  were  before  they  became  angels, 
dukes,  etc.,  in  a  feense,  and  even  nominally."  This 
author  says :  "  I  have  seen  a  man  declaring  himself  to 
be  the  Saviour  sign  himself  James  Thomson,  and  at- 
tend worship  regularly,  as  if  the  notion  of  divinity 


132  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

had  never  entered  into  his  head/'  And  in  reference 
to  the  very  case  now  before  us  he  says:  ^'I  think  it 
probable  that  Nebuchadiiezzar  retained  a  perfect  con- 
sciousness that  he  was  Nebuchadnezzar  during  the 
whole  course  of  his  degradation. ''  But  whether  he 
retained  it  all  the  while  or  not,  he  did  have  it  as  he 
drew  near  the  termination  of  his  malady.  His  afflic- 
tion struck  him  while  a  voice  from  heaven  w^as  speak- 
ing, and  as  his  reason  returned  he  found  himself 
looking  up.  He  says:  ^^At  the  end  of  the  days  I 
Nebuchadnezzar  lifted  up  mine  eyes  unto  heaven.^' 
He  knew  then  that  he  was  a  grievous  sufferer,  and 
looked  imploringly  for  mercy  and  help  whence  alone 
they  could  come.  It  was  a  look  of  reverence  for  the 
God  of  heaven,  and  a  look  of  prayer  for  pity.  But 
it  was  an  availing  look.  He  says  with  joy  and  grati- 
tude, "  Mine  understanding  returned  unto  me,  and  I 
blessed  the  Most  High,  and  I  praised  and  honored 
Him  that  liveth  for  ever,  whose  dominion  is  an  ever- 
lasting dominion,  and  His  kingdom  from  generation 
to  generation ;  who  doeth  according  to  His  will  in  the 
army  of  heaven,  and  among  the  inhabitants  of  the 
earth,  and  none  can  stay  His  hand,  or  say  unto  Him, 
What  doest  Thou  r 

He  had  endured  a  most  signal  judgment,  but  it 
had  upon  him  the  intended'  effect.  It  humbled  his 
pride.  It  brought  him  to  the  most  devout  personal 
reco2:nition  of  the  true  God.  It  set  him  to  work  to 
do  all  in  his  power  to  honor  and  glorify  Jehovah. 
It  took  away  from  his  heart  all  shame  or  hesitation  in 
confessing  his  sin,  and  the  justice  of  the  punishment  he 


THE   GREAT  MAN  HUMBLED.  133 

had  suffered  on  account  of  it.  It  made  liim  a  pen- 
itent adorer  and  royal  missionary  of  the  true  God. 
Not  a  great  golden  statue  now,  but  his  own  imperial 
station,  his  recovered  reason,  his  softened  heart,  his 
royal  pen,  himself  and  all  his  power  and  faculties  as 
a  king,  were  dedicated  to  that  infinite  One  whose 
majesty  he  had  offended,  whose  judgment  he  had  suf- 
fered, and  whom  all  men  should  fear,  worship,  and 
obey.  He  transmuted  his  throne  into  a  pulpit  and 
his  state  papers  into  sermons,  that  his  erring  subjects 
mio:lit  learn  the  wonders  of  Omnipotence,  be  led  to 
honor  the  high  God,  and  have  peace  multiplied  unto 
them  through  His  name.  He  had  "  learned  that  the 
heavens  do  rule ;"  and  now  his  royal  desire  was  that 
all  people,  nations  and  languages  that  dwell  in  all 
the  earth  might  learn  the  same,  without  coming  to  it 
through  such  sorrows  as  he  had  felt.  He  had  through 
deep  waters  reached  the  better  shore,  and  he  now  sung 
his  psalm  of  royal  praise  to  the  "  King  of  heaven, 
all  whose  works  are  truth,  and  His  ways  judgment." 
He  had  come  to  a  pious  appreciation  of  "  the  signs 
and  wonders  that  the  high  God  had  wrought  toward 
him  ;"  and,  touched  with  that  beneficent  missionary- 
fire  which  always  attends  a  true  experience  of  grace, 
he  now  would  have  all  men  reverence  and  adore  that 
same  almighty  Being  who  is  able  to  humble  all  the 
children  of  pride. 

Men  have  debated  whether  his  was  a  full  and  gen- 
uine conversion  or  not.  To  riie  it  seems  as  if  every- 
thing that  could  be  expected  under  the  circumstances 
was  actually  wrought.     There  breathes    through  the 


134  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

whole  document  so  quiet,  candid,  earnest  and  beau- 
tiful a  spirit  that  I  know  not  how  to  explain  it  with- 
out referring  it  to  a  thorough  transformation  of  his 
entire  character,  which  only  the  converting  grace  of 
God  could  work.  The  offensive  pride  of  the  heathen 
autocrat  gave  place  to  that  penitent  humility  which 
frankly  confesses  its  sin  and  blesses  the  Hand  that 
chastised  it.  The  man  of  war  now  prays  upon  all 
men  the  blessings  of  peace.  The  hand  which  held 
the  sword,  and  wielded  it  with  such  terrible  effect, 
is  now  stretched  forth  in  benediction.  The  lion,  so 
fierce  and  ravenous,  is  tamed  into  a  lamb.  The 
harsh  enactor  of  decrees  to  cut  men  to  pieces  and  to 
burn  them  in  furnaces  of  fire  now  exhorts  and  ad- 
monishes them  as  a  very  prophet  of  God.  If  his 
language  and  speech  are  not  yet  completely  purged 
of  their  heathen  accent,  and  do  not  in  all  respects 
conform  to  that  of  the  inspired  teachers  of  Israel, 
we  can  still  distinctly  trace  in  it  the  soul  of  a  true 
worshipper  and  servant  of  the  Most  High.  Nor  do 
I  know  by  what  authority  any  one  can  deny  him 
place  in  the  great  congregation  of  them  that  know 
God  and  share  in  His  redeeming  grace. 

This  chapter  gives  us  the  last  that  we  hear  of  this 
illustrious  monarch.  After  this  grand  proclamation 
the  veil  is  drawn,  and  all  is  hidden  till  the  great  day 
of  final  reckoning.  And  I  take  it  as  not  a  little 
significant  that  the  last  view  of  him  which  the  sacred 
record  gives  exhibits  him  in  the  noble  posture  of 
official  exhortation  to  all  people  to  fear  the  high 
God,  whose   signs  are  so  great  and  whose  wonders 


THE  GREAT  MAN  HUMBLED.  135 

are  so  mighty,  exultiiigly  praising,  extolling  and 
honoring  the  King  of  heaven.  It  tells  of  a  great 
soul  won  to  God  and  salvation. 

That  after  so  deep,  long  and  total  a  disability  he 
found  his  imperial  authority  still  reserved  to  him 
must  likewise  be  referred  to  the  special  providence 
and  merciful  goodness  of  God,  the  while  foreseeing 
w>hat  a  salutary  change  the  sorrowful  affliction  would 
work.  We  may  justly  attribute  it,  in  good  part,  to 
that  generosity  and  sound  statesmanship  which  led 
the  king  to  put  Daniel  and  the  three  other  Hebrews 
at  the  head  of  things.  Faithful  to  their  God,  they 
would  not  be  unfaithful  to  their  king,  nor  allow  ad- 
vantage to  be  taken  of  his  melancholy  sufferings  to 
set  up  another  in  his  place.  These  men  knew  that 
the  trouble  was  only  for  a  definite  time,  and  that 
then  the  king  would  be  recovered  to  his  right  mind 
in  a  still  higher  sense  than  it  Avas  ever  before  pos- 
sessed. And,  so  fiir  as  their  high  authority  and 
influence  would  go,  they  would  reserve  the  kingdom 
for  him,  as  the  Chaldeans  had  done  when  his  father 
died.  Accordingly,  he  had  this  testimony  to  give, 
that  when  the  days  of  his  affliction  were  accom- 
plished his  counsellors  and  lords  sought  unto  him, 
and  he  was  established  in  his  kingdom,  and  excellent 
majesty  was  added  unto  him.  God's  discipline,  ac- 
knowledged and  accepted,  is  always  God's  favor 
secured. 

Let  every  one  therefore  behold,  consider  and  learn 
wisdom.     Who  is  it  to  whom  no  prophetic  warnings 


136  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

from  the  God  of  heaven  have  come,  admonishing  of 
impending  calamity  and  of  the  need  to  break  off  sin 
by  righteousness  and  iniquity  by  showing  mercy? 
Look,  then,  at  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  be  moved  to 
immediate  attention  to  these  necessary  duties.  You 
may  be  at  rest  in  your  possessions  and  put  far  off 
the  evil  day,  but  the  vision  of  approaching  ill  has 
shown  itself  and  the  word  of  the  "  watcher "  has 
been  spoken.  Even  while  you  are  promising  your- 
self obedience  the  hidden  causes  are  at  work  to  dis- 
appoint your  hopes  and  blast  all  your  fancied  tran- 
quillity. Above  all  things,  beware  of  a  proud  and 
self-glorifying  spirit.  You  plead  to  enjoy  yourself 
a  little,  but  while  you  are  surveying  your  comfortable 
estate,  and  flattering  yourself  with  your  achievements, 
and  blessing  yourself  for  what  your  hands  have 
wrought  or  genius  won,  the  stroke  is  making  ready 
in  the  sky,  and  the  hour  of  fearful  humiliation  is  at 
hand.  It  seems  to  you  no  serious  wrong  to  be  a 
little  appreciative  of  your  talents,  your  learning,  your 
honors,  your  beauty,  your  accomplishments — to  look 
admiringly  upon  the  lands  you  have  acquired,  the 
houses  you  have  built,  the  reputation  you  have  made, 
the  fortune  you  have  won — to  indulge  a  little  self- 
complacency  over  what  you  have  made  of  your  life 
and  opportunities ;  but  while  the  feeling  of  self-laud- 
ation is  forming  in  your  secret  heart,  who  knows  what 
judgments  are  ready  to  break  forth  and  crush  all  your 
glorying  into  the  dust?  That  beauty  in  which  you 
pride  yourself  so  much — that  dignity,  intelligence, 
reason  and  power  of  self-direction — that  mastery  of 


THE  GREAT  MAN  HUMBLED.  137 

the  means  of  honor,  fame,  influence  and  enjoyment — 
those  fond  possessions  which  distinguish  you  so  high- 
ly from  the  common  masses, — all  may  be  wilted  and 
gone  before  the  completion  of  another  hour  !  It  is 
only  by  the  unmerited  favor  of  God  that  they  are 
preserved  unto  you  for  a  single  day,  and  yet  you 
would  ignore  and  neglect  Him  to  indulge  your 
vanity ! 

"Oh  why  should  mortal  man  be  proud?" 

Let  his  attainments  be  what  they  may,  he  holds  them 
by  a  tenure  as  frail  as  the  spider's  web,  which  may 
be  broken  any  moment. 

"  His  brightest  visions  just  appear, 

Then  vanish,  and  no  more  are  found  : 
The  stateliest  pile  his  pride  can  rear 
A  breath  may  level  with  the  ground." 

One  slight  touch  from  the  hand  of  God  made  all 
Nebuchadnezzar's  greatness  as  nothing  to  him,  and 
imposed  a  degradation  so  melancholy  and  so  deep 
that  we  can  hardly  think  of  it  without  tears  of 
profoundest  commiseration.  Nor  is  there  any  guar- 
antee for  any  one  against  the  like  calamity.  There's 
no  humiliation  like  that  of  insanity,  and  yet  no  vigor 
of  intellect,  no  clearness  of  mind,  no  height  of  in- 
telligence, no  place  in  life,  no  birth,  no  blood,  no 
virtue,  no  influence,  even  of  religion  itself,  can  secure 
a  mortal  man  against  it.  And  if  we  even  should  by 
God's  goodness  escape  it,  all  the  sublimities  of  mere 
earthly  fortune  and  achievement  must  nevertheless 
soon  be  to  us  as  if  they  never  had  been.     We  tarry 


138  VOICES  FRO 31  BABYLON. 

here  but  a   little  while,  and  then  death   comes  and 
ends  all. 

"  Oh  why  shonhl  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud  ? 
Like  a  swift-fleeting  meteor,  a  fast-flying  cloud, 
A  flash  of  the  lightning,  a  break  of  the  wave, 
He  passeth  from  life  to  his  rest  in  the  grave  ! 

"  The  leaves  of  the  oak  and  the  willow  shall  fade, 
Be  scattered  around  and  together  be  laid  ; 
And  the  young  and  the  old,  and  the  low  and  the  high, 
Shall  moulder  to  dust,  and  together  shall  lie ! 

"  The  hand  of  the  king  that  the  sceptre  hath  borne, 
The  brow  of  the  priest  that  the  mitre  hath  worn, 
The  eye  of  the  sage,  and  the  heart  of  the  brave. 
Are  hidden  and  lost  in  the  depths  of  the  grave ! 

"  And  we  are  the  same  that  our  fathers  have  been  ; 
We  see  the  same  sights  our  fathers  have  seen ; 
We  drink  the  same  stream,  and  view  the  same  sun, 
And  run  the  same  course  our  fathers  have  run. 

"  They  loved,  but  the  story  we  cannot  unfold  ; 
They  scorned,  but  the  heart  of  the  haughty  is  cold ; 
They  grieved,  but  no  wail  from  their  slumber  may  come; 
They  joyed,  but  the  tongue  of  tlieir  gladness  is  dumb ! 

"  'Tis  the  wink  of  an  eye,  'tis  the  draught  of  a  breath, 
From  the  blossom  of  health  to  the  paleness  of  death — 
From  the  gilded  saloon  to  the  bier  and  the  shroud  ; — 
Oh  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud  ?" 


LECTURE  SEVENTH. 

The  Doom  of  Sackilege  ;  ok,  Belshazzar's 
Feast. 

Daniel  5 : 1-31. 

THIS  chapter  introduces  us  to  a  new  personage  in 
Babylonian  affairs,  though  one  almost  unknown 
to  history  except  in  connection  with  the  scenes  which 
are  here  narrated.  Nebuchadnezzar  is  referred  to  as 
his  ^'  father,"  but  he  was  the  son  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
only  in  the  second  generation,  as  Jesus  was  the  "  son 
of  David"  in  a  still  remoter  generation.  There  is 
no  word  in  Hebrew  or  Chaldaic  for  grandfather  or 
grandson. 

From  certain  cylindrical  records  found  in  1854  in 
the  ruins  of  Um  Ghier  (the  Ur  of  the  Chaldees, 
whence  Abraham  came),  it  appears  that  Belshazzar 
was  the  son  and  co-regent  of  Nabonnedus,  who  was 
the  probable  husband  of  one  of  Nebuchadnezzar's 
daughters,  and  who,  through  conspiracy,  had  suc- 
ceeded in  becoming  the  king  of  Babylon.  When 
Nebuchadnezzar  died,  his  only  son,  Evil-Merodach, 
took  the  throne;  but  he  reigned  only  two  years,  when 
he  was  murdered  and  supplanted  by  his  brother-in- 
law,  Neriglissar,  who  reigned  four  years.  After  him 
his  son,  a  mere  boy,  was  made  king.     He  held  his 

139 


140  VOICES  FEOM  BABYLON. 

place  for  only  nine  months,  when  he  fell  a  victim  to 
the  conspiracy  of  Nabonnedus,  who,  together  with  his 
own  son,  Belshazzar,  whom  he  made  co-regent  with 
himself,  were  the  last  kings  of  Babylon. 

It  was  while  this  father  and  son  were  on  the 
tlirone  that  the  Medo-Persian  invasion  occurred.  Na- 
bonnedus,  at  the  head  of  the  army,  went  forth  against 
Cyrus,  but  was  worsted  in  an  engagement  with  him. 
Taking  refuge  in  the  Borsippa  temple,  he  was  there 
surrounded  by  the  Medo-Persian  army,  and  held  until 
he  surrendered ;  whereupon  he  was  honorably  retired 
to  Carmania,  where  he  died. 

When  the  fatlier  thus  went  out  with  the  army, 
Belshazzar  the  son  was  left  in  charge  of  affairs  in 
Babylon,  where  the  scenes  narrated  in  this  chapter 
were  enacted,  and  he  and  the  Babylonian  dominion 
came  to  a  sudden  end  together. 

This  Belshazzar  was  a  young,  dissolute  and  un- 
worthy prince.  A  recent  writer  says  of  him  that  ^'he 
was  addicted  to  the  lowest  vices  of  self-indulgrence, 
and  felt  no  restraint  whatever  in  the  gratification  of 
his  desires.  With  all  this  there  was  combined  an 
arrogance  of  the  haughtiest  kind,  which  would  brook 
no  interference  with  his  designs,  and  would  submit  to 
no  expostulation  in  the  interests  of  morality.  The 
severe  lesson  read  by  Jehovah'  to  his  grandfather  in 
that  mysterious  malady  Avas  entirely  lost  on  him,  and 
he  went  on  to  greater  and  greater  excesses,  as  if  to 
show  that  he  had  no  regard  whatever  either  for  God 
or  man.''  Daniel  shows  nothing  of  that  sympathy 
or  liking  for  him  which  he  felt  for  Nebuchadnezzar. 


THE  DOOM  OF  SACRILEGE.  141 

Even  the  heathen  historian  Xenophon  pronounces 
him  an  "impious"  man,  and  instances  his  passionate 
cruelty  in  slaying  one  of  his  nobles  for  anticipating 
him  in  striking  clown  the  game  in  a  hunt,  and  in  mu- 
tilating a  courtier  at  a  banquet  because  one  of  the 
women  said  he  was  handsome. 

The  attitude  in  which  he  appears  in  the  matter  now 
before  us  is  quite  in  keeping  with  just  such  a  charac- 
ter. With  his  father  a  captive,  the  armies  scattered, 
and  himself  a  prisoner  within  the  besieged  walls  of 
Babylon,  not  knowing  what  hour  he  and  his  empire 
might  fall,  only  the  most  infatuated  and  reckless  of 
sovereigns  would  have  thought  of  venturing  upon 
such  demonstrations  as  marked  the  last  night  of  his 
life  and  empire.  A  proud  sensualist,  however,  is  al- 
ways impervious  to  serious  reflection  so  long  as  op- 
portunity remains  for  the  gratification  of  his  passions 
or  the  indulgence  of   his  selfish  gayety. 

We  read  that  "  Belshazzar  the  king  made  a  great 
feast  to  a  thousand  of  his  lords.''  There  has  been 
much  learned  surmising  as  to  the  nature  of  this 
"  feast."  Some  think  it  was  meant  to  be  an  expres- 
sion of  a  vain-glorious  contempt  for  Cyrus  and  his 
besieging  army.  Some  think  it  was  the  celebration 
of  some  repulse  of  the  invaders.  Others  think  it 
was  an  anniversary  occasion,  meant  to  commemorate 
the  king's  birth  or  coronation,  or  some  victory  on 
which  he  prided  himself,  or  the  founding  of  the 
kingdom.  Others  think  it  was  a  stated  religious 
festival  in  honor  of  the  gods,  perhaps  of  the  kind  of 
the  Jewish  Purim  or  the  Roman  Saturnalia.     I  doubt 


142  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

if  it  was  either  of  these.  Belshazzar  was  hardly 
serious,  devoted  or  patriotic  enough  to  warrant  the 
supposition  of  anything  historical,  traditional  or 
commemorative  in  the  business.  The  record  says 
he  made  it.  It  was  most  likely  the  suggestion  and 
outbirth  of  his  own  arbitrary,  reckless  and  vain-glo- 
rious sensuality,  looking  only  to  that  sort  of  display, 
enjoyment,  revelling  and  defiance  of  all  care  or  fear 
in  which  his  debased  soul  most  delighted.  Daniel 
says  he  made  it  ^'  to  his  lords/^  leaving  us  to  infer 
that  it  was  rather  in  royal  compliment  to  them  than 
to  the  honor  of  the  gods.  Drinking  to  the  gods  was 
the  usual  concomitant  of  heathen  banquets.  Cyrus 
was  quite  as  likely  to  hear  of  it  whether  it  was  a 
religious  or  state  festival,  or  a  mere  prank  of  the 
pleasure-loving  king.  Belshazzar  certainly  laid  him- 
self out  to  make  "a  g7r-at  feast,'^  which  would  natu- 
rally be  very  loud  in  its  preparations  as  well  as  in  its 
actual  observance.  At  any  rate,  it  was  made  an  occa- 
sion of  general  license  and  carousing  from  the  lordly 
court  down  through  all  classes.  Gobryas  in  the 
camp  of  Cyrus,  when  the  command  for  making  the 
furtive  assault  was  given,  said,  "  I  should  not  be 
surprised  if  the  doors  of  the  palace  are  now  open, 
for  the  whole  city  seems  to-night  to  be  given  up  to  rev- 
elry J'^  (Xeno2')hon.)  Cyrus  had  received  intelligence 
of  a  grand  royal  frolic  to  be  held  in  Babylon.  He 
anticipated  that  the  night  would  be  spent  in  revelling 
and  drunkenness.  And  the  facts  prove  that  he  was 
not  mistaken  in  his  calculations. 

Such    excesses,  at  such  a  time,  betray  the  utmost 


THE  DOOM   OF  SACRILEGE.  143 

recklessness  and  infatuation.  It  can  be  explained 
only  on  the  old  maxim,  "  AVhom  the  gods  mean  to 
destroy,  they  first  make  mad."  Such  a  king  deserv- 
ed to  be  dethroned,  and  such  folly  well  merited  the 
calamities  which  it  invited  and  facilitated.  The  sin 
was  not  so  much  in  the  festival,  for  festivals,  holi- 
days and  banquets  are  not  necessarily  wicked,  though 
apt  to  degenerate  into  all  sorts  of  excesses.  The  grand 
banquet  is  here  brought  into  the  foreground,  not  as 
the  one  lone  and  particular  offence  for  which  these  sore 
judgments  came,  but  in  illustration  of  the  character 
and  spirit  of  the  man.  It  was  merely  the  crown  or 
topping-out  of  a  vast  pyramid  of  rottenness,  which 
alone,  at  such  a  time,  could  have  brought  forth  and 
sustained  these  proceedings.  It  was  simply  the  last 
stone  in  the  edifice  of  Babylonian  degeneracy — the 
last  touch  in  the  dark  picture  of  Babylon's  gigantic 
licentiousness,  infatuation  and  towering  impiety. 

To  say  the  least,  it  was  a  most  ill-timed  and  inop- 
portune festiveness.  What  if  the  walls  of  the  city 
were  great  and  high  and  its  gates  strong?  What  if 
it  had  provisions  to  last  it  for  twenty  years?  With 
the  army  vanquished,  the  royal  father  a  prisoner  in 
the  invader's  hands,  and  the  whole  army  of  the  Me- 
do-Persian  conqueror  investing  the  place  on  all  sides 
with  persistent  determination  to  reduce  it  to  subjec- 
tion, this  was  no  time  to  be  showing  off  such  pranks 
of  royal  voluptuousness.  Such  mighty  thunderings 
surely  called  for  something  different  from  this  ])roud 
glee  and  merrymaking.  No  man  with  a  grain  of 
proper  sense  or  right  feeling  left  would  have  thrown 


144  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON, 

open  the  doors  and  led  the  way  to  such  a  carousal 
amid  such  a  state  of  things.  It  shows  every  becom- 
ing sensibility  gone,  a  besottedness  of  mind  and  heart 
that  leaves  no  place  for  the  virtues  of  patriotism  and 
rulership,  and  a  licentious  depravity  and  extravagance 
betokening  the  worst  moral  lunacy. 

But  the  extraordinary  excesses  of  the  thing  added 
tenfold  to  its  heartless  oifensiveness.  It  was  idiocy 
loading  itself  with  intensest  crimes.  The  "great 
feast''  turned  out  to  be  a  scene  of  mere  bacchana- 
lian orgies,  in  which  the  king  himself  led  oif.  It 
was  not  the  custom  of  kings  to  eat  and  drink  before 
their  subjects ;  but  here  all  restraints  were  thrown 
aside.  The  dignity  of  the  monarch  was  all  sunk  in 
the  loose  hilarity  of  the  occasion.  Drinking  wine 
was  a  chief  part  of  the  performance,  and  Belshazzar 
familiarly  joined  the  thousand  of  his  lordly  guests  to 
do  royal  justice  to  it.  He  "■  drank  wine  before  the 
thousand,"  and  drank  till  he  felt  it,  and  continued  to 
drink  till  it  became  his  counsellor  and  put  all  sorts 
of  wild  thoughts  into  his  head.  "  Whilst  he  tasted 
of  the  wine,"  the  treacherous  spirit  of  it  began  to 
work,  and  he  bethought  him  to  add  still  more  to  the 
glory  of  the  occasion,  himself,  his  company  and  his 
gods,  and  so  made  a  decree  which  completed  the 
abomination  and  sealed  the  fate  of  Babylon. 

In  the  treasure-house  of  one  of  his  gods  were  de- 
posited the  holy  vessels  which  once  did  service  in  tlie 
temple  of  Jeliovah  at  Jerusalem.  They  had  all  been 
consecrated  to  the  Lord  Almighty,  who  never  is  with- 
out respect  to  what  has  been  dedicated  to  His  name. 


THE  DOOM  OF  SACRILEGE.  145 

Nebuchadnezzar  liad  seized  them  when  he  took  Jeru- 
salem, and  brought  them  hither  and  placed  them 
where  they  were,  but  always  treated  them  as  sacred, 
and  never  had  allowed  them  to  be  used  for  any  pur- 
pose whatever.  But  what  cared  the  wine- heated  Bel- 
shazzar  for  the  reverence  of  his  grandfather  or  for 
what  was  devoted  to  Jehovah  ?  He  would  show  at 
once  his  independence,  his  contempt  for  the  God  of 
Israel,  and  his  triumph  over  all  the  considerations 
which  had  influenced  other  men,  by  fetching  out 
those  golden  bowls  and  making  them  do  honor  to 
his  drunken  revels.  He  therefore  '^  commanded  to 
bring  the  golden  and  silver  vessels  which  his  father 
Nebuchadnezzar  had  taken  out  of  the  temple  which 
was  in  Jerusalem,  that  the  king  and  his  princes,"  and 
all  the  women  whom  he  had  immodestly  brought  out 
to  his  infamous  banquet,  ^^  might  drink  therein."  It 
was  of  no  use  to  remonstrate  .with  such  a  libertine,  if 
any  had  been  so  disposed ;  therefore  the  golden  ves- 
sels were  brought,  and  he  and  his  lords  and  his 
women  "drank  in  them."  If  any  compunctions  were 
felt  on  the  subject,  they  had  to  be  stifled  and  sup- 
pressed in  the  presence  of  His  Imperial  Majesty.  So 
"  they  drank  wine,  and  praised  the  gods  of  gold,  and 
of  silver,  of  brass,  of  iron,  of  wood,  and  of  stone." 
Not  only  their  ill-timed  merriment,  their  trampling 
on  the  customary  proprieties,  and  their  drunkenness, 
but  even  their  foolhardy  and  blasphemous  insult  to 
the  most  high  God,  is  veiled  over  and  cloaked  up 
with  a  pretence  of  devotion  ! 

This  was  as  far  as  it  was  possible  for  human  daring 

10 


146  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

and  infatuation  to  go.  It  was  more  than  the  powers 
of  Heaven  could  quietly  endure.  The  divine  resent- 
ment broke  forth  on  the  spot.  ^^  In  the  same  hour 
came  forth  fingers  of  a  man's  hand,  and  wrote  over 
against  the  candlestick  upon  the  plaster  of  the  wall 
of  the  king's  palace."  The  moment  of  doom  had 
been  reached,  and  here  was  the  miraculous  writing 
of  the  sentence.  There  was  no  legerdemain,  no  de- 
ception, about  it.  ^'  The  king  saw  the  part  of  the 
hand  that  wrote."  His  own  eyes  followed  it  as  it 
traced  the  mystic  letters  where  no  hand  of  mortal 
could  reach  to  do  it.  He  beheld  the  black  charac- 
ters it  left  frowning  down  upon  him  from  the  palace- 
wall.  He  saw  the  consternation  of  men  and  heard  the 
shrieks  of  women.  He  could  not  read  the  letters  nor 
decipher  their  meaning,  but  his  conscience  took  alarm, 
and  he  could  not  treat  it  with  indifference.  All  his 
courage,  daring  and  proud  bravado  quite  broke  down. 
*^  The  king's  countenance  was  changed,  and  his  thoughts 
troubled  him,  so  that  the  joints  of  his  loins  were  loosed, 
and  his  knees  smote  one  against  another." 

Alas,  alas  for  the  dignity  and  bravery  of  those 
who  think  it  mean,  little  and  cowardly  to  fear  God ! 
They  may  think  it  manly  to  set  at  naught  the  scru- 
ples of  a  tender  conscience  and  all  dread  of  Jehovah's 
judgments,  but  their  superior  stateliness  is  the  first  to 
give  way  when  the  trying  moment  comes.  Nor  is 
there  a  more  craven  cowardice  or  dastard  pusillanim- 
ity than  that  which  underlies  the  noisy  courage  of 
men  who  defy  God  and  glory  in  trampling  moral 
restraints  beneath  their  feet.     Show  me  a  man  who 


THE  DOOM  OF  SACRILEGE.  147 

thinks  it  great  and  heroic  to  despise  the  bonds  of 
piety  and  the  inculcations  of  religion,  and  I  will  show 
you  a  miserable  poltroon  at  heart.  The  audacious  and 
defiant  King  Belshazzar  is  horror-stricken  and  un- 
manned in  the  midst  of  all  his  gallant  valor  before 
a  handwriting  on  tlie  wall,  not  a  single  syllable  of 
which  he  can  read  ! 

Off  for  ''  the  astrologers,  the  Chaldeans,  and  the 
soothsayers '' !  is  now  the  cry  of  the  cringing  and 
horrified  monarch.  ^'  Bring  them  quick,  that  they 
may  read  this  writing  for  me,  and  show  me  the  in- 
terpretation thereof!  The  highest  honors  of  the 
kino-dom  to  the  man  who  will  tell  me  what  it  means! 
He  shall  be  clothed  with  royal  purple.  He  shall 
wear  a  necklace  of  gold.  He  shall  be  the  third 
ruler  in  the  kingdom.  He  shall  be  next  to  me,  as 
I  am  next  to  my  father  V^  Poor  dastard  soul !  Why 
did  he  not  consult  wisdom  before  casting  himself  so 
recklessly  upon  this  moment  of  alarm  ?  The  cry 
of  "  Solon !  Solo7i !  Solon  ^  comes  too  late  when 
once  the  judgments  for  setting  him  at  naught  have 
been  kindled.  The  astrologers  appeared  and  gazed 
in  mute  astonishment,  but  the  writing  they  could  not 
read,  "  nor  make  known  to  the  king  the  interpreta- 
tion thereof.'^  The  horror  was  only  intensified  by 
their  presence  and  failure.  "  Then  was  King  Bel- 
shazzar greatly  troubled,  and  his  countenance  was 
changed  in  him,  and  his  lords  were  astonied."  What 
was  to  be  done  ?  An  age  of  alarmed  bewilderment 
was  crowded  into  a  single  hour  ! 

The    queen-mother   was    in    the    palace.     She    had 


148  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

taken  no  part  in  the  banquet.  Her  royal  husband 
was  a  }3risoner  in  Borsippa,  and  she  was  the  daughter 
of  Nebuchadnezzar.  She  had  most  likely  advised 
aocainst  this  whole  demonstration.  She  knew  what 
her  father  had  experienced  in  his  lifetime,  and  to 
what  sort  of  doctrines  he  had  been  converted  before 
he  died.  She  had  respect  for  his  memory,  for  the  con- 
victions he  had  so  fully  pronounced,  for  the  God  he 
had  learned  to  fear  and  honor,  and  for  the  noble  men 
whom  he  was  pleased  to  favor  for  their  holy  services 
to  him  ;  and  she  could  look  with  no  favor  upon  this 
ill-timed  and  impious  behavior  of  her  licentious  sou. 
I  am  the  more  led  to  this  from  the  fact  that  when 
troubles  come  upon  the  wicked  they  generally  betake 
themselves  to  those  whose  warnings  and  good  coun- 
sels they  have  despised.  The  coarse  blasphemer, 
when  taken  down  in  his  impieties,  is  most  likely  to 
send  for  the  very  minister  whom  he  most  hated  and 
cursed  before.  And  so  Belshazzar  now  betakes  him- 
self to  that  queen-mother  whose  kindly  admonitions 
he  had  haughtily  cast  to  the  winds ! 

And  though  the  man  was  now  beyond  the  reach 
of  redemption,  this  woman  does  by  far  the  best  for 
him  of  all  his  lords  and  counsellors  and  wise  men. 
There  is  a  trueness,  a  readiness,  a  self-command 
and  a  fertility  of  resources  in  a  genuine  woman 
of  which  all  kings  and  all  men  do  well  to  avail 
themselves  whether  in  shadow  or  in  sunshine.  No 
sooner  did  the  queen-mother  learn  what  had  hap- 
pened than  her  thoughts  ran  back  to  the  days  of  her 
father,  and  to  the  holy  prophet  who  had  served  him 


THE  DOOM   OF  SACRILEGE.  149 

so  well.  Taking  in  at  once  the  whole  situation,  her 
mind  was  made  up  as  to  the  next  thing  to  be  done. 
A  splendid  contrast  did  she  present  over  against  those 
astounded,  pale  and  nonplussed  lords  and  that  agi- 
tated and  trembling  king  !  With  ^vhat  a  steady  com- 
posure she  stepped  into  that  banquet-hall,  a  little 
while  ago  resounding  with  the  noisiest  of  gayeties, 
but  now  all  subdued  and  silenced  with  terror  and 
dread  !  Behold  the  queenly  majesty  with  which  she 
seeks  to  recover  those  blanched  imbeciles  to  their 
senses !  If  woman  is  apt  to  be  agitated  with  trifles, 
yet  when  some  great  crisis  comes  she  has  more  calm 
magnanimity  than  a  thousand  lords — more  sense  and 
self-possession  than  they  all.  From  her  finer-strung 
nature  she  may  feel  it  the  more  afterward  and  suffer 
the  more  severely  under  the  rebound,  but  while  the 
dread  crisis  is  upon  her  the  other  sex  sinks  greatly 
by  comparison. 

The  first  thing  this  queenly  woman  said  was  a 
word  of  expostulation  with  the  king  for  being  so 
unmanned  by  his  terror  and  perplexity.  She  set 
herself  with  motherly  speech  to  recompose  his  shat- 
tered dignity  and  to  bring  him  once  more  to  himself. 
She  knew  of  one  who  could  read  tlie  writing  for 
him,  for  in  him  was  the  light,  understanding  and 
wisdom  of  the  holy  gods.  He  had  proven  himself 
a  matchless  revealer  of  secrets,  interpreter  of  dreams 
and  solver  of  doubts  to  her  illustrious  father,  and 
she  was  sure  his  prophetic  power  was  adequate  for 
this  case  also.  Therefore  she  said  :  "Ze^  Daniel  he 
called,  and  he  loill  shew  the  interpretation.^^ 


150  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

This  time  the  mother's  voice  was  heeded,  and  it 
was  not  many  minutes  until  Daniel  stood  before  the 
alarmed  king.  Though  hitlierto  manifestly  treated 
with  indifference,  he  did  not  forget  liis  allegiance  and 
duty  to  his  sovereign — even  Belshazzar.  Though 
neglected  himself,  he  still  did  not  neglect  the  king's 
business  (viii.  27),  and  when  he  was  called  he 
promptly  answered.  He  could  do  the  miserable  sen- 
sualist no  good,  but  he  still  might  interpret  for  him 
the  sentence  of  outraged  Omnipotence,  and  why  it 
was  pronounced. 

In  broken  sentences  Belshazzar  recounted  what  had 
happened,  pointed  to  the  frowning  letters  on  the  Avail, 
and  promised  a  glorious  reward  to  the  noble  prophet 
if  he  would  read  the  writing  and  interpret  what  it 
meant.  The  grand  fee  Daniel  at  once  declined,  but 
agreed  to  read  the  writing  and  to  tell  the  whole 
meaning  of  it.  And  stranger  was  it  than  all  fiction 
that  such  a  banquet,  conducted  with  such  noisy  de- 
fiance of  Jehovah,  should  end  up  with  a  sermon  to 
which  all  those  lords,  and  even  that  presumptuous 
king,  were  the  willing  and  eager  listeners. 

A  splendid  sermon  also  was  it.  With  what  grand 
and  affecting  reminiscences  of  Nebuchadnezzar  did  it 
begin !  In  what  sharp  contrast  did  it  sketch  the  ef- 
feminacy and  impiety  of  Belshazzar !  With  what  di- 
rectness did  it  point  out  the  inexcusable  and  defiant 
wickednesses  of  its  chief  hearer!  With  what  solemn 
and  unflinching  faithfulness  did  it  tell  the  sentence 
God  had  written,  and  make  known  the  doom  which  it 
was  now  too  late  to  escape !     It   almost  takes  one's 


THE  DOOM  OF  SACRILEGE.  151 

breath  to  hear  the  massive  utterances  roll  from  that 
holy  preacher's  lips.  The  solemnity  of  the  scene 
almost  overwhelms  us. 

Transfer  yourself  into  that  royal  banquet-hall,  and 
listen.  There  stands  the  tall  and  reverend  prophet. 
Nothing  of  the  obsequious  courtier  is  upon  liim  now. 
He  has  not  a  word  of  sympathy  for  the  king  in  his 
guilty  alarm.  His  voice,  his  brow,  his  words,  his 
composed  manner  and  solemnity,  are  all  in  deep  ac- 
cord with  the  Spirit  which  had  traced  those  letters  and 
with  the  awful  sentence  Avhich  was  in  them.  He  saw 
that  the  end  of  the  impious  contemner  of  the  Al- 
mighty had  come.  He  knew  that  he  was  about  to 
utter  the  last  words  the  royal  sinner  should  ever  hear 
in  this  world.  And  he  spoke  exactly  as  became  the 
occasion.  Fixing  his  eyes  upon  the  pale  and  tremb- 
ling criminal,  now  ripe  for  destruction,  he  measuredly 
said  : 

^'  O  thou  king !  The  most  high  God  gave  Nebuchad- 
nezzar thy  father  a  kingdom,  and  majesty,  and  glory, 
and  honor :  and  for  the  majesty  that  he  gave  Him,  all 
people,  nations,  and  .languages  trembled  and  feared  be- 
fore him:  whom  he  would  he  slew,  and  whom  he 
would  he  kept  alive ;  and  lohom  he  would  ^he  set  up ; 
and  whom  he  umukl  he  put  down.  But  when  his 
heart  was  lifted  up,  and  his  mind  hardened  to  deal 
proudly,  he  was  made  to  come  down  from  his  kingly 
throne,  and  they  took  his  glory  from  him  :  and  he 
was  driven  from  the  sons  of  men  ;  and  his  heart  was 
made  like  the  beasts,  and  his  dwelling  was  with  the 
wild  asses :  they  fed  him  with  grass  like  oxen,  and 


152  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

his  body  was  wet  with  the  dew  of  heaven  ;  till  he 
knew  that  the  most  high  God  ruled  in  the  kingdom 
of  men,  and  that  He  appointeth  over  it  whomsoever 
He  will.  And  thou  his  son,  O  Belshazzar,  hast  not 
humbled  thine  heart,  though  thou  knewest  all  this; 
but  hast  lifted  up  thyself  against  the  Lord  of  heaven ; 
and  they  have  brought  the  vessels  of  His  house  be- 
fore thee,  and  thou,  and  thy  lords,  thy  wives,  and 
thy  concubines,  have  drunk  wine  in  them;  and  thou 
hast  praised  the  gods  of  silver,  and  gold,  of  brass, 
iron,  wood,  and  stone,  which  see  not,  nor  hear,  nor 
know:  and  the  God  in  whose  hand  thy  breath  is, 
and  whose  are  all  thy  ways,  hast  thou  not  glorified : 
therefore  was  ih^  end  of  this  hand  sent  from  Him, 
and  this  writing  was  written.  And  this  is  the  writ- 
ing that  was  written  :  Meiie,  mene,  tehel,  Upharsin. 
This  is  the  interpretation  of  the  thing:  Mene;  God 
hath  numbered  thy  kingdom,  and  finished  it.  Tekel', 
thou  art  weighed  in  the  balances,  and  art  found  want- 
ing. Peres  ]  thy  kingdom  is  divided,  and  given  to 
the  Medes  and  Persians." 

There  was  nothing  more  to  be  said.  From  such  a 
sentence  there  was  neither  escape  nor  appeal.  How 
the  doomed  king  took  it  we  are  not  informed,  save 
that  he  commanded  to  have  his  promise  to  Daniel 
fulfilled.  But"m  that  night  was  Belshazzar  the  king 
of  the  Chaldeans  slain.'' 

"  Tlie  shroud,  his  robe  of  state ; 
His  canopy,  the  stone; 
The  Mede  was  at  his  gate! 
The  Persian  on  his  throne !" 


THE  DOOM  OF  SACRILEGE.  153 

Friends  and  brethren  :  It  is  for  our  learning  and 
admonition  that  these  things  have  been  written.  They 
call  up  to  us  afresh  the  solemn  truth,  which  none 
should  ever  forget,  that  there  is  a  great  invisible  Pow- 
er, high  over  all  gods  and  kings,  who  carefully  ob- 
serves and  justly  weighs  all  the  actions  of  men.  An 
all-seeing  Eye  was  on  Nebuchadnezzar  in  his  pride, 
and  a  great  humiliation  was  sent  upon  him  till  he  was 
made  to  know  and  confess  that  the  Most  High  ruleth ; 
and  that  same  all-seeing  Eye  was  on  Belshazzar,  who 
failed  to  profit  by  the  awful  judgment,  but  lifted  him- 
self up  against  the  Lord,  defied  His  providence,  wil- 
fully profaned  the  sacred  vessels  of  His  worship, 
praised  the  gods  of  silver,  gold,  brass,  iron,  wood 
and  stone,  which  can  neither  see,  nor  hear,  nor  know, 
and  despised  the  almighty  Being  from  whom  he  had 
his  life  and  breath.  Such  impiety  and  wickedness 
could  not  pass  unpunished.  Sin  has  a  voice  that  is 
heard  in  heaven.  It  may  be  thought  nothing  of  by 
men,  but  God  notes  it  in  His  book,  and  takes  account 
of  every  item  of  aggravation  in  it. 

The  Scriptures  everywhere  assure  us  that  "  the  Lord 
-is  a  God  of  knowledge,  and  by  Him  actions  are  weigh- 
ed." Solomon  writes  :  ^'  All  the  ways  of  a  man  are 
clean  in  his  own  eyes;  but  the  Lord  weigheth  the 
spirit."  He  puts  every  Belshazzar  and  every  other 
in  His  balances,  weighs  every  soul,  marks  every  folly, 
and  records  every  good  and  every  deficiency.  Every 
opportunity  misimproved,  every  admonition  disregard- 
ed, every  ungrateful  feeling  indulged,  every  impulse 
of  pride  entertained,  every  instance  of  power  abused 


154  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

or  talents  squandered,  every  word  and  a(;t  of  profanity, 
every  neglect  and  slight  of  Jehovah's  messengers, 
every  effort  to  get  away  from  duty,  every  attempt  to 
drown  serious  thoughts  by  sensual  excesses,  every 
sending  away  of  God's  servants  to  wait  for  a  more 
convenient  season,  every  contempt  for  the  Bible  and 
for  those  who  believe  and  follow  it,  every  thought  and 
passion,  or  idle  word  that  men  speak, — all  of  them, 
singly  and  together,  are  surveyed  and  weighed,  and 
written  down  in  heaven  against  the  day  of  final  ac- 
count. And  did  the  children  of  pleasure,  pride,  sel- 
fishness and  unbelief  but  see  the  reality,  they  would 
likewise  behold  a  writing  from  a  mystic  hand  frown- 
ing from  the  walls  that  witness  their  impieties,  and 
containing  a  sentence  of  impending  judgment.  It  is 
a  startling  thing  to  contemplate,  but  it  is  true ;  and 
the  sooner  our  modern  Belshazzars,  sensualists,  ma- 
terialists, pantheists  and  atheists  learn  to  know  it, 
the  better  for  them  and  all  else. 

Very  clear  and  pointed  also  are  the  indications  here 
given  of  what  things  weigh  the  heaviest  against  a  man 
in  these  heavenly  balances. 

Belshazzar  had  miserably  neglected  and  abused  his 
office  and  place  as  a  king.  Political  positions  are  not 
intended  for  the  glory  and  gratification  of  those  who 
occupy  them,  but  for  solemn  and  faithful  service  to 
the  community  which  upholds  them.  God  is  strictest 
in  His  reckonings  with  those  in  power.  An  official 
personage  is  responsible  beyond  a  common  individual. 
People  are  apt  to  take  it  just  the  contrary,  but  in 
God's  account  sin  takes  its  intensity  according  to  of- 


THE  DOOM  OF  SACRILEGE.  155 

fice.and  place.  A  parent  is  responsible  beyond  a 
child ;  a  minister,  beyond  his  hearers ;  a  judge  or 
ruler,  beyond  an  ordinary  subject.  Wherever  there 
is  power  there  is  increase  of  accountability  according 
to  that  power.  And  the  wickedness  of  Belshazzar 
was  the  wickeder  and  all  the  more  severely  punished 
because  he  was  a  king.  Office  is  a  serious  thing.  It 
cannot  be  entered  and  handled  as  men  please  with  im- 
punity. Over  its  portals  stands  the  inscription,  "  Let 
him  who  enters  here  beware,  for  a  jealous  God  is 
withinJ'  Sins  of  office  are  the  blackest  of  all  sins. 
Abuses  of  power  and  place  are  the  most  offi^nsive  of 
all  abuses.  And  Jehovah's  most  signal  judgments 
are  those  with  which  He  avenges  himself  upon  un- 
faithful rulers  and  ungodly  office-holders. 

Particularly  offensive  to  God  is  sensuality,  licen- 
tiousness, revelling  and  drunkenness.  It  is  the 
special  defilement  which  He  hates.  It  is  a  filthiness 
of  the  flesh  and  of  the  spirit  which  He  most  intense- 
ly abhors,  and  to  which  He  has  affixed  His  sorest 
penalties.  This  living  for  gayety  and  pleasure — this 
everlasting  pampering  of  the  flesh  and  its  lusts — this 
steeping  of  the  soul  in  the  slough  of  mere  carnal  en- 
joyment and  debauchery — this  deifying  of  our  likes 
and  passions,  and  making  everything  bend  and  con- 
tribute to  their  gratification, — is  just  what  marked  the 
character  of  Belshazzar's  life,  the  result  of  which  is 
before  us. 

Still  another  item  of  his  guilt  was  his  total  disre- 
gard of  God's  providential  warnings.  This  is  par- 
ticularly charged  upon   him   by   the   prophet  as  the 


156  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

head  and  front  of  his  oifending.  Jehovah  had  shown 
His  resentment  of  all  vain-glorious  pride  and  exalta- 
tion of  self  over  against  Omnipotence  in  the  tremen- 
dous humiliation  He  had  sent  upon  Nebuchadnezzar. 
Belshazzar  knew  all  this.  It  was  fully  written  out 
in  the  archives  of  the  empire,  and  published  officially 
by  the  repentant  king  to  every  portion  of  the  realm. 
It  was  too  conspicuous,  evident  and  publicly  empha- 
sized not  to  have  -come  to  Belshazzar's  notice  or  not 
to  have  been  to  him  an  ample  admonition  against  the 
sort  of  life  he  was  leading.  But  he  disregarded  and 
despised  it.  Without  Nebuchadnezzar's  sense  or  ma- 
jesty, he  was  prouder  and  more  defiant  than  his  illus- 
trious grandfather  had  ever  been.  With  the  example 
before  him  of  the  terrible  heinousness  and  certain 
fearful  punishment  of  such  self-lifting  up,  he  delib- 
erately went  into  it  regardless  of  consequences.  He 
was  adequately  warned,  but  he  profited  not  by  it. 
God  means  that  we  should  learn  from  history  and 
take  to  heart  the  lessons  of  His  providence.  His 
word  and  acts  are  written,  that  we  may  note  them 
and  direct  our  way  by  them.  And  when  people  shut 
their  eyes  to  all  that  He  has  shown,  set  at  naught  His 
counsels  and  refuse  to  take  the  instructions  He  gives, 
it  is  all  reckoned  up  in  His  books  as  so  much  the 
more  ao-ainst  them.  These  sermons  unheeded  and 
these  admonitions  despised  will  prove  to  be  bottled 
thunders,  to  increase  the  dismay  in  the  day  of  judg- 
ment. 

But  the  crowning  guilt  of  this  dissolute  monarch 
was  his  wilful  and  besotted  profanation  of  the  vessels 


THE  DOOM  OF  SACRILEGE.  157 

of  God's  house.  There  was  no  need  for  them  at  the 
feast.  There  was  no  reason  or  excuse  for  invading 
tlieir  long  and  reverent  retirement  to  bring  them  forth 
for  any  such  use.  It  was  nothing  but  a  piece  of  base, 
defiant  and  wilful  sacrilege.  Hence  the  special  men- 
tion of  it  as  the  intensest  element  in  Belshazzar's  guilt, 
and  that  which  barbed  the  arrows  of  the  summary 
judgment  which  befell  him.  And  well  would  it  be 
for  men  in  our  day  if  they  had  nothing  of  this  sin 
to  answer  for.  In  external  form,  of  course,  there  is 
no  chance  now  for  just  such  a  profanation,  but  Bel- 
shazzar's sin  is  not  confined  to  Belshazzar's  circum- 
stances. When  the  precious  things  of  God's  holy 
Church  are  seized  and  appropriated  to  gild  and  glor- 
ify a  party  or  a  sect  or  to  satisfy  the  narrow  whims 
of  some  modern  Diotrephes,  what  is  it  but  a  desecra- 
tion of  holy  things  ?  When  Baptism,  a  profession  of 
religion,  or  the  sacred  Supper  of  our  Lord  is  used  as 
a  passport  to  citizenship,  a  qualification  for  secular 
office,  a  means  of  gratifying  friends,  securing  favors 
or  gaining  credit  and  standing  in  society,  what  is  it 
but  a  misappropriation  of  holy  vessels  to  an  unholy 
use?  When  the  Christian  pulpit  and  the  honors  and 
sanctities  of  the  holy  office  are  laid  hold  of  for  mere 
personal  display,  the  securement  of  notoriety,  the 
building  up  of  a  reputation  or  the  putting  forth  of 
doctrines  contrary  to  the  Gospel,  what  is  it  else  than 
a  profanation  of  what  is  sacred  to  the  Lord  ?  When 
people  come  to  the  sanctuary,  bow  before  its  altar, 
join  in  its  holy  services,  mingle  with  those  who  wor- 
ship there,  and  wear  the  livery  and  mien  of  Christians 


158  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

just  to  cloak  their  secret  ill-doings,  to  pass  for  vir- 
tuous that  they  may  the  better  accomplish  their  selfish 
ends,  what  is  it  but  a  prostitution  of  the  things  of 
God  to  a  base  unholiness?  When  the  facts  and  ex- 
pressions of  God's  Word,  its  pure  and  glorious  truths, 
its  sublime  and  awful  doctrines,  are  taken  to  point  a 
pun,  to  edge  a  jest,  to  sharpen  a  sarcasm,  to  excite  a 
laugh,  to  raise  a  sneer,  what  is  it  but  Belshazzar  over 
again  profanely  taking  hold  of  the  sacred  vessels  to 
add  to  the  zest  of  an  impious  carousal  ?  It  has  also 
been  remarked  that  something  of  the  same  is  done 
when  the  sublime  descriptions  of  the  judgment  to 
come,  or  the  momentous  history  of  our  Saviour's  Pas- 
sion, or  the  grand  visions  of  the  Apocalypse  are  taken 
for  musical  exhibitions,  using  the  holiest  of  words  to 
intensify  artistic  performances,  add  to  the  emotions, 
deepen  the  effect  and  please  the  hearers,  to  secure 
applause  to  mere  musicians.  And  still  more  does  this 
spirit  of  sacrilege  exist  where  the  heart  that  was  made 
for  God  is  turned  into  a  throne  of  Mammon,  lust  and 
greed  ;  where  the  affections  meant  to  cluster  around 
Jehovah  are  all  transferred  and  fastened  on  the  things 
of  earth  ;  where  the  talents  the  Almighty  has  lent  are 
all  employed  in  the  service  of  self  and  the  devil ; 
where  these  souls,  which  were  fashioned  to  live  and 
shine  in  the  beautiful  home  of  heaven,  are  made  the 
filthy  reservoirs  of  degrading  passion  and  unclean- 
ness.  We  fault  Belshazzar  for  his  profanations,  but 
in  these  things  his  sin  still  lives. 

Seeing,  then,  how  it  went  with  this  man,  is  there 
not  reason  for  us  to  be  a  little  anxious  about  how  we 


THE  DOOM  OF  SACRILEGE,  159 

stand  in  the  celestial  records?  He  was  a  heathen 
prince,  and  had  not  half  our  light  and  opportunities; 
we  are  the  children  of  Christian  lands  and  homes, 
reared  under  the  sound  of  church-going  bells,  and  fa- 
miliar with  all  sacred  knowledge  from  our  infancy. 
He  had  but  one  great  example  to  influence  and  direct 
him ;  we  have  thousands  of  them,  and  the  ministries 
of  many  ages  and  divers  dispensations.  The  vessels 
he  profaned  had  been  won  in  battle,  and  had  become 
the  property  of  the  crown,  which  a  heathen  monarch 
might  suppose  himself  entitled  to  use  as  he  saw  fit; 
the  sacred  things  we  have  we  know  to  be  the  Lord's, 
and  we  know,  too,  how  jealous  He  is  of  their  right- 
ful use  and  His  rightful  honor.  And  if  Belshazzar 
met  a  doom  so  sudden  and  aw^ful  for  his  profanity, 
what  have  many  around  and  among  us  to  expect? 
If  he  was  so  deficient  when  weighed  in  the  just 
balances  of  God,  how  will  it  be  with  those  who 
drive  on  with  guilty  pride  and  ungodliness  over  a 
preached  Gospel,  over  a  crucified  Saviour,  and  in  de- 
fiance of  all  the  holy  lessons  and  warning  admonitions 
with  which  their  way  is  strewn  ?  If  the  pagan  in  his 
pagan  surroundings  could  not  escape,  how  will  it  be 
-with  pagans  who  are  such  in  spite  of  all  the  better 
light  and  hallowing  influences  of  a  complete  revela- 
tion and  a  pure  Christianity?  If  Mene,  meiie,  tckel, 
Upharsin,  was  written  against  the  heathen  Belshazzar, 
what,  suppose  ye,  stands  written  to-day  against  those 
who  so  well  know  their  duty,  but  do  it  not? 

O  my  friends,  there  is  something  peculiarly  alarm- 
ing in  these  inquiries.     A  world  of  ominous  sugges- 


160  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

tion  presents  itself.  I  seem  to  be  looking  on  scenes 
of  judgment  in  which  the  wheels  of  God's  almighti- 
ness  thunder  and  crash  throu^rh  throno;s  of  shriekina: 
souls,  the  nurslings  of  unnumbered  mercies,  for  whom 
there  is  no  more  help  or  hope !  Among  them  are 
many  whom  I  know,  whose  fathers,  mothers  and 
friends  I  know,  to  whom  I  have  often  preached  and 
with  whom  I  have  often  pleaded.  I  wonder.  Is  this  to 
he  reality  f  Ah,  dear  hearers,  that  is  for  you  to  de- 
cide. As  things  now  stand  with  many,  it  is  on  the 
way  to  become  reality.  And  when  I  see  how  light 
some  make  of  it,  how  dull  and  dead  many  are  to  the 
whole  subject,  with  what  haughty  indifference  one  and 
another  turns  from  it  as  the  veriest  trifle,  I  w^onder 
still  more  how  can  it  otherwise  than  become  reality, 
perhaps  with  all  the  suddenness  of  Belshazzar's  end ! 
God  be  thanked  that  it  is  not  reality  yet !  Judgment 
still  lingers.  How  much  longer  it  will  delay  for  the 
persevering  sinner  God  only  knows.  Now,  therefore, 
while  yet  the  sun  of  mercy  shines,  let  no  one  who 
hears  me  turn  a  heedless  ear  or  trifle  any  further 
with  the  precious  interests  of  his  endangered  soul. 


LECTURE  EIGHTH. 

The  M EDO-Persian  Prime  Minister  ;    or, 
The  Faith  of  Daniel  Tested. 

Daniel  6 : 1-28. 

THE  chapter  upon  which  we  now  enter  very 
clearly  attests  the  change  in  the  government  of 
Babylon  declared  in  the  verses  preceding.  It  was 
common  for  the  Chaldeans  to  administer  capital  pun- 
ishment by  burning.  To  the  Persians,  who  were 
worshippers  of  fire,  this  was  regarded  as  something 
of  an  abomination,  and  hence  they  destroyed  their 
condemned  criminals  bv  castino;  them  to  savao;e  beasts. 
The  lion's  den,  in  place  of  the  burning  fiery  furnace, 
thus  points  to  an  entire  revolution  in  the  laws  and 
administration  of  the  empire. 

The  same  is  indicated  in  the  division  of  the  king- 
dom into  principalities,  and  the  assignment  of  a  par- 
ticular head  or  prince  to  each,  whilst  over  these, 
again,  were  three  presidents,  one  of  whom  was  the 
chief  over  the  other  two,  and  stood  in  relation  to  the 
throne  as  prime  minister  or  grand  vizier.  We  thus 
find  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  quite  another  gov- 
ernment from  that  which  was  administered  by  the 
exalted  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  which  perished  with 
his  infamous  grandson  Belshazzar. 

11  161 


162  VOICES  FRO 31  BABYLON. 

You  will  remember  that  it  was  said  in  the  con- 
chisioii  of  the  preceding  chapter  that  "  Darius  the 
Median  took  the  kingdom,  being  about  tlireescore 
and  two  years  okL"  Critics,  historians  and  anti- 
quarians are  much  at  sea  in  their  attempts  to  identify 
this  king.  There  are  three  different  theories  on  the 
subject,  and  it  does  not  seem  to  be  possible,  in  the 
present  state  of  our  knowledge,  to  determine  which 
is  certainly  the  true  one.  Fortunately,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  settle  this  question  in  order  to  understand 
what  is  here  meant  to  be  taught  us.  All  the  facts 
and  lessons  remain  precisely  the  same  whether  we 
can  tell  who  this  Darius  the  Median  was,  or  not. 
The  strongest  probabilities  are  that  he  was  the  same 
who  is  known  as  Astyages,  in  whose  court  Cyrus 
the  conqueror  was  reared.  He  was,  at  any  rate,  the 
embodiment  and  representative  of  the  Medo-Persian 
dominion  over  Babylon  after  it  was  conquered  by 
Cyrus. 

Coming  into  power  in  Babylon  upon  the  fall  of 
Nabonnedus  and  Belshazzar,  lie  would  nece&sarily 
have  his  attention  very  particularly  directed  to  Dan- 
iel, not  only  from  his  connection  with  the  court  for 
such  a  long  succession  of  years,  but  chiefly  on  ac- 
count of  his  interpretation  of  the  mysterious  writing 
on  the  wall,  his  prediction  of  Belshazzar's  fall,  and 
his  remarkable  wisdom  in  connection  with  the  reign 
of  the  great  Nebuchadnezzar.  Very  naturally,  he 
would  desire  to  avail  himself  of  the  services  and 
talents  of  so  wise,  experienced  and  faultless  a  man. 
Coming    in    contact    with    him,    as    he    thus    would. 


THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  PRIME  MINISTER.     163 

Darius  could  not  be  otherwise  tlian  impressed  with 
the  extraordinary  character  of  his  talents  and  liis 
eminent  fitness  to  be  selected  as  his  chief  helper  in 
the  organization  and  administration  of  his  newlv- 
enlarged  kingdom.  Though  Darius  himself  seems 
to  have  been  a  somewhat  weak,  impulsive  and  vacil- 
lating man,  yet  he  had  had  a  long  experience  in 
rulership,  and  was  not  deficient  in  discernment  and 
wisdom  in  selecting  trustworthy  and  competent  men 
to  whom  to  assign  responsible  trusts.  Even  weak 
and  bad  men  like  to  have  good  and  faithful  servants, 
and  prefer  those  with  better  ])rinciples  than  their 
own.  It  is  a  homage  which  they  pay  to  virtue,  even 
though  they  do  not  follow^  it.  No  matter  how  de- 
praved people  may  be,  they  would  always  rather  have 
servants  whom  they  can  trust  than  such  as  are  as 
base  as  themselves.  And  whatever  may  have  been 
the  deficiencies  of  this  Darius,  he  had  the  shrewdness 
to  find  out  the  best  and  most  competent  man  in 
Babylon  to  serve  him  as  his  prime  minister.  He 
made  Daniel  the  chief  of  the  three  presidents  over 
all  the  other  princes  and  principalities  into  which 
the  realm  was  divided  under  the  Medo-Persian  rule. 
Such  a  man,  in  such  a  position,  administering 
affairs  with  rigid  exactness  and  impartiality,  strictly 
honest  himself  and  tolerating  no  dishonesties  or  fal- 
sities in  others,  and  ever  growing  in  the  esteem  of 
his  king  and  in  favor  witli  the  people,  could  not,  in 
the  nature  of  things,  escape  the  envy  and  malice  of 
those  who  suffered  by  comparison,  and  who  found 
him  in  the  way  of  their  selfish  ambitions.     It  is  part 


164  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

of  the  disease  that  is  upon  depraved  humanity  to  be 
dissatisfied  and  unamiable  toward  the  excellences 
and  honors  of  others.  It  is  loath  to  bear  anything 
above  itself.  It  is  the  nature  of  the  devil  to  be  the 
accuser  of  the  good  and  of  those  who  are  favored  for 
their  worth ;  and  all  his  children  have  the  same 
family  trait.  They  are  pained,  mortified,  chagrined 
dnd  full  of  spiteful  resentment  at  the  superior  ex- 
cellence or  prosperity  of  those  above  them.  It  is 
their  delight  to  humiliate  those  who  happen  to  be 
more  favored  than  themselves.  If  compelled  to  give 
credit  in  one  direction,  they  are  exceedingly  in- 
genious in  finding  some  point  at  which  to  take  it 
back.  Admitting  that  Job  is  a  just  and  upright 
man,  they  always  have  a  ^'but "  as  to  the  motives 
in  the  case,  by  which  to  make  it  appear  a  mere 
sordidness  after  all. 

"  Be  thou  as  chaste  as  ice,  as  pure  as  snow, 
Thou  shalt  not  escape  calumny," 

And  this  is  particularly  true  in  affairs  of  public 
office.  It  seems  to  inhere  in  politicians  and  aspirants 
to  hate  and  persecute  every  man  in  official  place  who 
honestly  tries  to  do  his  duty  and  seeks  to  carry 
ethics  into  public  administrations.  Few  men  go  into 
these  arenas  but  with  sinister  and  selfish  aims,  and 
if  one  in  power  will  not  share  their  plans  for  self- 
aggrandizement,  flatter  their  pride,  shut  his  eyes  to 
their  dishonesties  and  let  his  conscience  go,  he  is 
sure  to  be  assailed,  to  have  charges  trumped  up 
against   him,   to  have   snares   and   traps  set   for  him. 


THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  PRIME  MINISTER.     165 

and  subtle  plans  laid  to  embarrass,  disgrace  or  dis- 
place him.  The  greatest  personal  enemies  readily 
make  common  cause  to  get  rid  of  a  man  who  has 
the  principle  and  nerve  to  stand  firm  against  their 
self-seeking,  their  oppressions,  their  robberies  and 
their  wicked  ambitions.  Though  they  may  have 
been  loudest  in  trying  to  put  him  into  place,  they 
will  curse  and  defame  him  if  they  are  not  made 
sharers  in  his  successes  or  cannot  use  him  for  their 
ignoble  ends. 

And  so  it  was  in  this  case.  Daniel  was  an  hon- 
orable and  true  man.  His  record  marked  him  as 
the  proper  person  for  the  place  assigned  him.  He 
did  his  business  on  the  highest  principles  of  justice 
and  virtue.  He  was  faultless  as  a  man  and  as  an 
officer  of  state.  The  kino^  suffered  no  damai»:e  under 
his  administration.  His  excellent  spirit  commended 
him  more  and  more  to  his  sovereign  the  more  he 
knew  of  him.  "And  the  king  thought  to  set  him 
over  the  whole  realm."  This  was  unendurable  to 
these  Medo-Persian  officials.  It  did  not  suit  their 
ideas.  It  was  in  the  way  of  tlieir  low  aims.  It 
was  an  embargo  on  their  bribery  and  peculation, 
the  particular  vices  in  Oriental,  if  not  also  in 
Occidental,  administrators  of  authority.  It  augur- 
ed a  pure  court  and  honest  transactions,  which 
is  never  agracable  to  underlings  in  power.  Hence 
the  conspiracy  on  the  part  of  these  presidents  and 
princes  to  displace  and  destroy  Daniel.  No  matter 
for  the  method,  the  end  was  to  get  him  out  of  the 
way ;    and  that  end   was    deemed    of    sufficient   im- 


166  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

portaiice  to  justify  the  means.  They  had  the  ad- 
vantao^e  of  numbers.  What  one  or  two  could  not 
accomplish  a  general  combination  might  eifect.  And 
so  they  went  to  work  with  all  their  malignant  in- 
genuity to  break  down  and  destroy  the  noblest  man 
and  the  purest  officer  that  ever  held  authority  in 
Babylon.  They  set  themselves  to  watch  and  study 
him.  With  cold  blood  they  subjected  every  feature 
and  every  act  to  the  keenest  microscopic  scrutiny 
of  hate.  They  brought  to  bear  upon  him  all  ''  that 
fierce  light  that  beats  upon  a  throne  and  blackens 
every  blot.''  They  thought  of  his  advancing  age — 
whether  they  might  not  sustain  a  charge  that  he  had 
got  beyond  the  time  of  life  in  which  to  perform  such 
heavy  duties  with  efficiency.  They  thought  of  his 
foreign  birth  and  Jewish  blood  and  former  slavery 
— whether  they  might  not  develop  a  disabling  prej- 
udice from  that  quarter.  They  thought  of  his 
being  with  the  Babylonians,  and  not  with  the  Medo- 
Persians,  in  those  wars  and  campaigns  which  gave 
them  the  kingdom — whether  they  might  not  on  this 
ground  vacate  his  right  to  such  high  authority 
among  the  conquerors.  They  dogged  his  steps, 
thinkins:  to  overtake  him  in  some  indiscretion  where- 
bv  to  blacken  his  character  to  his  destruction.  Had 
there  been  the  least  appearance  of  a  flaw,  they 
would  have  found  it.  Had  there  been  the  remotest 
semblance  of  a  fluilt,  they  were  fully  made  up  to 
bring  it  out.  And  never,  perhaps,  was  a  man  on 
earth  subjected  to  a  scrutiny  so  intense,  backed  with 
such  a  pressure  of  determination  for  his  overthrow, 


THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  PBUIE  MINISTER.     167 

as  that  to  wliich  Daniel  was  put  by  these  envious 
and  unprincipled  presidents  and  princes  of  the 
Medo-Persian  government.  Few,  indeed,  are  the 
])ublic  men  who  could  stand  the  test  of  such  a 
crucible. 

But  see  what  the  true  fear  of  God  will  do  for  a 
man  !  "  As  the  mountains  are  round  about  Jeru- 
salem, so  the  Lord  encampetli  round  about  them  that 
fear  Him.'^  With  all  the  determination  of  these  ma- 
lignants  to  ruin  Daniel,  they  could  find  no  fault  in 
him.  Pietv  was  rooted  in  him,  and  it  wrou«:ht  for 
him  a  pureness,  dignity  and  integrity  of  life  and  cha- 
racter on  which  the  most  envious  tongues  could  obtain 
no  hold.  Thev  could  sustain  no  charo-es  ag^ainst  him 
as  a  man  or  against  his  administration.  His  hands 
were  not  stained  with  bribery  nor  his  heart  with  the 
wages  of  unrighteousness.  With  patience  and  impar- 
tiality he  inquired  into  all  complaints,  determined  all 
causes  and  redressed  all  wrongs.  He  dispensed  his 
patronage  with  justice  and  equality.  His  counsels 
to  his  sovereign  were  so  wise  that  only  prosperity 
came  from  them  to  the  crown.  His  policy  always 
proved  itself  sound  and  good.  His  management  of 
the  revenues  was  unimpeachable,  his  accounts  correct, 
his  receipts  and  disbursements  transparently  honest. 
He  had  no  favoritism  to  indulge,  no  selfish  ends  to 
secure,  no  dishonest  ways  or  equivocal  proceedings  to 
account  for.  His  devotion  to  his  God  made  him  true 
in  all  his  life  and  faithful  to  all  his  trusts.  He  cheated 
nobody,  he  oppressed  nobody,  and  he  never  comj)ro- 
mised  himself  with  evil   or  connived  at  unri2;hteous- 


168  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

ness.  And  so  pure  and  exalted  was  he  in  his  princi- 
ples and  administrations  that  even  tlie  black-hearted 
conspirators,  in  all  their  anxiety  to  humiliate  him, 
"  could  find  none  occasion  for  fault,  forasmuch  as  he 
was  faithful,  neither  was  there  any  error  or  fault  in 
him/^  Against  their  will  they  were  obliged  to  admit 
and  conclude,  "  We  shall  not  find  any  occasion  against 
this  Daniel,  except  we  find  it  against  him  concerning 
the  law  of  his  God/'  And  scarcely  has  there  ever 
been  an  eulogium  passed  upon  any  public  man  so 
justly  founded,  so  completely  attested  and  so  abso- 
lutely perfect  as  that  which  these  unprincipled  Medo- 
Persian  presidents  and  princes  thus  pronounced.  It 
was  hate  itself  doing  reverence  to  the  object  of  its 
bitterest  dislike.  It  puts  the  character  of  Daniel 
high  above  all  question  or  reproach.  And  thus  in 
the  midst  of  a  heathen  people,  at  the  head  of  a 
cabinet  of  dishonest,  envious  and  plotting  officials, 
and  surrounded  with  all  the  temptations  which  the 
indulgence  of  a  confiding  sovereign  threw  in  his  way, 
he  went  through  the  ordeal,  as  his  three  friends  had 
gone  through  the  fires  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  furnace, 
without  the  singeing  of  a  hair  or  so  much  as  the  smell 
of  burning  on  his  clothes.  Nor  was  the  miracle  much 
less  in  his  case  than  in  theirs.  Yet  such  is  the  pro- 
tecting and  exalting  wisdom  of  honesty,  and  the  glo- 
rious shield  which  a  true  and  practical  righteousness 
gives. 

Having  thus  satisfied  themselves  of  the  impeccable 
integrity  of  Daniel,  both  as  a  man  and  as  a  competent 
officer,  the  eyes  of  these  plotters  should   have    been 


THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  PRIME  MINISTER.      169 

opened  to  their  unreasonableness  in  wishing  to  over- 
throw  him.     Convinced    of    his    fitness,    worth    and 
purity,  we  woukl  naturally  look  for  some  symptoms 
of  shame  and  remorse  for  the  injustice  they  had  done, 
and   some  signs  of  relenting  and  reparation.     Plato 
was  of  opinion  that  if  perfect  truth  and  virtue  were 
to  come  from  heaven    and  manifest  their  real  glory 
among  men,  all  would  at  once  bow  down  and  worship 
them.    But  he  did  not  understand  the  depths  of  human 
depravity.     Perfect  truth  and  virtue  did  come  from 
heaven  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  stood  be- 
fore the  eyes  of  men  for  years  and  years  in  untainted 
beauty   and   glory;    but  the   children    of   this  world, 
rulers    and    mobs,    cried,    "Away   with    Him!"    and 
crucified    Him.     And  when  the  devil  of  selfishness, 
envy   and    malice  takes   possession   of   the  heart,   no 
charms  of  virtue,  no  beauties  of  goodness,  no  adorn- 
ments of  innocence,  no  excellences  of  merit  are  suffi- 
cient to  cast  him  out  or  to  break  his  dominion.     The 
more   invincible  the  arguments  of   Stephen    became, 
and  the  more  his  face  shone  with  the  brightness  of 
angelic    purity,    the    more    his    wicked    persecutors 
stopped   their  ears,  rushed  for   his  life  and   hurried 
his  martyrdom.     And  so  it  was  in  the  instance  before 
us.     The  more  convinced  these  men  were  of  DanieFs 
unimpeachableness,  the  more  desperate  they  became  in 
their  determination  to  destroy  him.     There  was  one 
tiling,  however,  upon  which  they  were  persuaded  they 
might  securely  count.     They  saw  how  true  and  inflex- 
ible he  was  in  his  religious  principles,  and  if  they  could 
only  devise  a  scheme  in  which  he  would  be  compelled 


170  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

to  relinquish  his  religious  fidelity  or  die,  they  were 
perfectly  satisfied  that  their  desires  would  be  accom- 
plished. To  this  they  therefore  set  themselves  with 
consummate  eagerness,  dissimulation  and  hypocrisy. 
Glance  for  a  moment  at  the  cunning  baseness  of 
their  proceeding. 

It  was  necessary,  in  order  to  displace  Daniel,  that 
they  should  somehow^  enlist  the  authority  of  the  king 
in  the  matter.  They  were  convinced  that  any  attempt 
to  impeach  the  prime  minister  must  fail  and  react 
upon  themselves.  They  determined,  therefore,  to  leave 
all  mention  of  Daniel  entirely  outside  of  their  proceed- 
ings, and  to  feign  a  worshipful  devotion  to  the  king,  as 
if  profoundly  concerned  for  the  majesty  of  his  person 
and  the  exhibition  of  his  divine  greatness.  It  was  not 
uncommon  for  Oriental  monarchs  to  have  the  worship 
of  their  subjects  as  representatives  of  Deity,  indwelt 
and  possessed  by  the  celestial  powers.  The  monu- 
ments and  the  histories  attest  that  it  w^as  regarded  as 
one  of  the  noblest  of  civil  duties  to  honor  and  wor- 
ship the  king  as  a  god.  And  the  movement  of  these 
conspirators  now  was  to  prove  how  much  they  were 
devoted  to  the  sublimest  honor  of  their  sovereign, 
and  to  induce  him  to  unite  with  them  in  establishing 
some  royal  decree  which  siiould  memorialize  his  di- 
vine dignity  and  bring  to  him  the  sacred  reverence 
which  belonged  to  his  person.  The  holding  of  the 
laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians  to  be  unalterable  was 
founded  on  the  assumption  that  the  king  is  something 
of  a  deity,  and  can  make  no  mistakes.  And  this  di- 
vinity of  their  king  these  men   professed  to  be  most 


THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  PRIME  MINISTER.      171 

anxious  to  bring  forward  and  to  have  impressed  upon 
all  the  subjects  of  the  realm. 

Nor  could  they  see  a  more  reasonable  and  practical 
way  for  it  than  for  the  king  to  sign  and  issue  a  de- 
cree "  that  whosoever  shall  ask  a  petition  of  any  god 
or  man  " — put  up  any  prayer  or  act  of  worship  — 
"for  thirty  days/'  save  of  himself  alone,  should  "  be 
cast  into  the  den  of  lions ;''  that  is,  publicly  executed. 
This  was,  therefore,  the  flattering  proposition  which 
they  laid  before  Darius.  With  many  eloquent  protes- 
tations of  their  own  devotion,  and  of  the  sacred  pro- 
priety of  having  every  subject  in  the  kingdom  thus 
to  honor  him  on  pain  of  death,  did  they  urge  the 
matter.  Nor  need  we  wonder  at  the  enormous  wick- 
edness of  it  when  we  remember  that  even  in  our  own 
day  a  general  council  of  the  highest  officials  in  what 
claims  to  be  the  one  only  Church  of  the  living  God 
united  in  solemnly  pronouncing  a  feeble  old  man  in 
Rome  possessed -of  divine  infallibility!  xVnd  if  tlie 
pope  of  Rome  is  pleased  to  accept  and  appropriate 
such  absurd  honors  in  the  name  of  the  sublimest 
truth  given  for  human  enlightenment,  we  need  not 
be  surprised  that  these  proposals  of  Medo-Persia's 
"presidents,  princes,  counsellors,  and  captains  "  ])roved 
acceptable  to  the  vain-glorious  heathen  monarch  who 
then  occupied  the  Medo-Persian  throne.  At  all 
events,  the  sacred  history  tells  us  that  these  disguised 
murderers  succeeded,  and  induced*  the  flattered  and 
easv  kino;  to  establish  the  decree  and  sign  the  writ- 
ing  which  they  dictated,  "'  that  it  might  not  be  chang- 
ed," but  stand  firm   as  the  divi no-regal   act  "  which. 


172  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

according  to  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians, 
altereth  not.'' 

Such  was  the  subtle  scheme,  and  such  was  the 
success  of  it.  Ostensibly,  it  was  for  the  honor  and 
alleged  rightful  glory  of  the  king ;  in  reality,  it  was 
for  the  murder  of  the  man  who  stood  next  to  him, 
and  who  had  in  him  more  of  the  divine  than  all  the 
kings,  presidents  and  princes  of  Media  and  Persia 
put  together.  It  had  a  heathen  lie  for  its  basis ;  it 
was  a  huge  hypocrisy  in  its  suggestion ;  and  it  was 
nothing  but  a  scheme  of  cold-blooded  murder  to  de- 
stroy the  greatest,  best  and  purest  man  in  the  king- 
dom. Well  may  we  stand  amazed  that  rational  men 
could  be  so  malignant,  so  treacherous,  so  regardless 
of  every  obligation  of  truth,  so  sacrilegiously  hypo- 
critical for  the  accomplishment  of  an  end  so  base. 
But  so  it  was,  and  to  such  depths  will  men  descend 
when  once  they  throw  off  allegiance  to  right  and 
conscience.  •  O  ye  triflers  with  con\'iction  and  better 
knowledge  !  be  admonished  of  the  gigantic  wicked- 
ness that  lies  in  yielding  to  your  dislikes  and  pas- 
sions aojainst  the  claims  of  rio^hteousness  and  virtue! 
To  sacrifice  reason  to  envy  and  malice,  to  let  go  right 
for  selfishness,  to  overstep  the  bounds  of  justice  for 
one's  own  gain,  though  it  should  be  only  for  once  or 
in  small  matters,  is  a  most  perilous  experiment.  No 
man  can  tell  in  what  monstrous  iniquity  it  may 
end  or  what  overwhelming  confusion  it  may  bring. 
Let  us  see,  then,  what  came  of  this  nefarious  busi- 
ness. 

Darius  had  the  poor  honor  of  being  hypocritically 


THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  PRIME  MINISTER.     173 

flattered  as  a  god.  These  envious  and  plotting  presi- 
dents had  the  gratification  of  seeing  the  high  author- 
ity of  the  throne  now  pledged  for  the  success  of  their 
murderous  wishes.  And  there  ap})eared  no  more  hope 
for  the  holy  Daniel  but  to  demit  his  duties  to  Jeho- 
vah, or  die.  What  was  to  be  done?  He  knew  the 
feeling  that  was  against  him.  He  was  not  unaware 
of  the  proceedings  which  had  been  instituted.  To 
complain  against  these  men  would  be  to  indict  nearly 
all  the  officials  of  the  realm  and  to  dash  himself  to 
destruction  against  the  combination  of  numbers.  To 
remonstrate  with  the  king  against  the  decree  would 
seem  like  taking  sides  against  a  popular  sentiment  of 
the  nation,  present  him  in  the  attitude  of  a  revolu- 
tionist trying  to  set  aside  one  of  the  proudest  tradi- 
tions and  most  sacred  political  doctrines  of  the  Medes 
and  Persians,  and  make  him  seem  to  be  a  disloyal 
opposer  of  the  king's  acknowledged  honor  and  dig- 
nity. To  abandon  his  position  and  flee  tlie  country 
would  show  a  cowardly  spirit,  and  had  but  little 
promise  of  success.  Indeed,  he  was  so  hedged  up 
on  all  sides  that  nothing  seemed  left  for  him,  as  a 
true  servant  of  Jehovah,  but  to  compose  himself  to 
his  fate,  go  on  with  his  accustomed  devotions  and 
meekly  trust  the  result  to  God.  Therefore,  ^'  when 
Daniel  knew  that  the  writing  was  signed,  he  went 
into  his  house ;  and  his  windows  being  open  in  his 
chamber  toward  Jerusalem,  he  kneeled  upon  his  knees 
three  times  a  day,  and  prayed,  and  gave  thanks  before 
his  God,  a.9  he  did  aforetiineJ^  He  knew  that  honor- 
able escape  from  these  bloody  conspirators  was  impos- 


174  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

sible  without  a  miracle.  The  lions^  den  and  death 
from  the  ferocity  of  the  savage  beasts  seemed  to  be 
his  inevitable  fate.  But  he  also  knew  in  Whom  he 
believed.  If  it  was  best  that  God  should  save  him 
from  such  an  end,  he  was  sure  that  not  all  the  fierce- 
ness of  bloody  men  or  devouring  lions  could  harm 
him  ;  and  if  God  should  deem  it  l)est  that  so  his 
earthly  life  should  terminate,  why  should  he  wish  to 
have  it  otherwise  ?  He  knew  that  God  was  with  him, 
and  that  in  any  event  no  loss  could  come  to  him  from 
it.  He  could  look  back  upon  a  life  of  untarnished 
devotion,  and  had  always  had  with  him  the  evidences 
of  Jehovah's  favor,  and  why  should  he  be  alarmed  or 
disconcerted  now  at  what  man  might  do  unto  him? 
And  though  the  lions  should  presently  crunch  his 
bones,  why  should  he  disgrace  the  last  remnant  of 
his  stay  on  earth  by  any  cowardly  abridgment  of  his 
pious  habits  or  his  wonted  prayers?  Therefore,  with 
a  quiet  self-possession  which  makes  him  even  more 
illustrious  in  the  face  of  death  than  in  the  duties  of 
life,  he  does  not  demit  a  jot  of  what  he  did  aforetime, 
nor  take  a  single  precaution  to  screen  himself  from 
the  malignant  observation  of  his  watching  foes.  Great 
indeed  is  the  power  of  living  faith.  It  can  make  ad- 
versity as  though  it  were  not.  It  enabled  the  first 
Christians  to  despise  bonds,  stripes,  imprisonments 
and  death.  It  lifted  Paul  so  high  above  this  world's 
calamities  that  he  even  gloried  in  tribulations.  It 
made  Poly  carp  look  upon  the  flames  that  were  to 
consume  him  as  a  chariot  of  God  to  waft  him  to 
eternal  glory.     It  kept  Daniel  as  serene  as  the  stars 


THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  PRIME  MINISTER.     175 

of  heaven,  though  another  day  should  give  his  body 
to  feed  the  wild  beasts  in  their  den.  And  of  all 
thino'S  within  human  reach,  there  is  nothino;  that  can 
SO  bless,  enrich,  compose  and  ennoble  its  possessor  as 
the  genuine  fear  of  the  Almighty. 

Great  was  the  king's  sorrow  when  he  found  who 
was  struck  by  his  insane  decree.  But  vainly  did  he 
now  reproach  himself  for  his  wicked  folly.  Fain 
would  he  have  recalled  the  document,  but  he  had 
suifered  himself  to  be  cajoled  into  a  commitment  be- 
yond his  power  to  undo.  He  had  played  the  fool. 
He  had  unwittingly  put  his  signature  to  the  death- 
warrant  of  the  truest  man  and  most  valuable  officer 
in  his  empire.  He  had  become  the  abettor  of  plot- 
ting murderers.  He  had  bound  himself  to  become 
the  executioner  of  the  very  individual  whom  he  was 
thinking  to  set  over  the  whole  realm.  He  had  per- 
mitted himself  to  be  flattered  into  a  measure  which 
was  now  about  to  put  out  of  the  world  the  most 
faithful  friend  he  had  on  earth.  And  well  might 
he  be  '^sore  displeased  with  himself,  and  set  his  heart 
on  Daniel  to  deliver  him,"  and  labor  in  his  remorse- 
ful distress  to  prevent  the  sad  consequences  of  his  in- 
discretion. But  it  was  all  of  no  avail.  People  who 
will  not  think  and  consider  when  they  act  must  ex- 
pect to  suffer  for  their  mistakes. 

Under  the  Medo-Persian  laws  Daniel  could  not  be 
delivered.  The  treacherous  princes  became  clamorous 
for  the  execution  of  the  decree.  It  was  clear  that 
their  envied  prime  minister  had  prayed  to  his  God 
contrary  to  the  prohibition.     It  was  clear  what  conse- 


176  VOICES  FRO 31  BABYLON. 

quences  were  annexed  to  such  disobedience.  And  the 
very  men  who  a  little  while  ago  were  so  zealous  for 
the  king's  divinity  now  did  not  hesitate  to  intimate 
disaster  to  him  if  he  should  fail  to  fulfil  what  he  had 
signed.  Sycophants  and  flatterers  are  always  tyrants 
in  their  hearts.  They  will  oppress  when  they  get  the 
power.  And  the  poor  king,  out  of  a  self-consistency 
which  we  find  it  hard  to  respect,  gave  the  command, 
"and  they  brought  Daniel,  and  cast  him  into  the  den 
of  lions."  And,  to  make  all  sure,  "a  stone  was 
brought,  and  laid  upon  the  mouth  of  the  den ;  and 
the  king  sealed  it  with  his  own  signet,  and  with  the 
signet  of  his  lords,  that  the  purpose  might  not  be 
changed  concerning  Daniel." 

This  was  supposed  to  be  the  end  of  the  noble  presi- 
dent— sad  end  of  a  man  so  great,  so  faithful  and  so 
good  !  Those  who  hated  him  rejoiced  over  their  murder- 
ous success,  and  now  considered  their  fortunes  made. 
But "  the  triumphing  of  the  wicked  is  short,  and  the 
joy  of  the  hypocrite  but  for  a  moment."  God  had 
not  forsaken  His  servant,  and  a  Higher  than  Darius 
had  decreed  that  he  should  not  thus  perish  before  his 
enemies.  Jehovah  holdeth  in  His  hand  the  devices 
of  men  and  the  savageness  of  beasts.  He  can  bring 
to  naught  the  machinations  of  })rinces  and  shut  the 
mouths  of  lions.  And  in  this  case  He  did  both.  Not 
a  lion  in  the  den  moved  to  hurt  the  venerable  proj)het. 
As  the  fire  would  not  burn  Shadrach,  Meshach  and 
Abednego,  so  the  beasts  would  not  attack  the  faithful 
Daniel.  When  the  king  came  calling  to  him  in  the 
morning,  he  loyally  answered,  and  told  what  a  mii-acle 


THE  ME  DO- PERSIAN  PRIME  MINISTER.      177 

God  had  wrought  for  his  preservation.  Gladder  for 
Daniel's  safety  than  Daniel  for  himself  was  the  trou- 
bled king  when  he  heard  these  tidings.  With  joy- 
ous haste  he  hurried  to  have  his  noble  servant  taken 
up  from  that  horrible  prison  and  the  infamous  con- 
spirators put  in.  '^  So  Daniel  was  taken  up  out  of  the 
den.  And  they  brought  those  men  which  had  accused 
Daniel,  and  they  cast  them  into  the  den  of  lions,  their 
children  and  their  wives.  And  the  lions  brake  their 
bones  in  pieces  or  ever  they  came  at  the  bottom  of  the 
den.'^  Verily,  the  wicked  shall  fall  into  their  own  pit, 
but  the  upright  shall  have  good  things  in  possession. 
Haman  hangs  on  the  very  gallows  which  his  vaulting 
pride  prepared  for  faithful  Mordecai.  '^So  this  Dan- 
iel ])rospered  in  the  reign  of  Darius,  and  in  the  reign 
of  Cyrus  the  Persian." 

See,  then,  from  this,  and  learn  to  take  it  deep  to 
heart,  that  there  is  a  righteous  and  merciful  God  at 
the  helm  of  things,  however  crooked  or  unevenly  they 
may  seem  to  go.  This  world  is  not  an  orphan  orb. 
Its  histories  are  not  matters  of  mere  chance.  The 
good  may  suffer  and  the  wicked  may  prosper  for  a 
time,  and  God  may  often  seem  to  have  abandoned 
His  servants,  but  He  maketh  the  wrath  of  man  to 
praise  Him,  and  the  remainder  of  wrath  will  He 
restrain.  His  ever-watchful  eye  is  on  all  that  tran- 
spires, and  nothing  can  occur  without  His  fore-calcu- 
lation and  His  wise  and  gracious  pre-determination  of 
what  shall  come  of  it.  His  throne  is  established  in 
the  heavens,  and  His  kingdom  ruleth  over  all.  Even 
the  heathen  Darius  was  convinced  of  this  from  what 

12 


178  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

he  saw  in  Daniel's  deliverance,  and  he  who  had  signed 
a  decree  involving  his  own  deification  now  made  and 
jDublished  another,  that  in  every  dominion  of  his  king- 
dom men  should  tremble  and  fear  before  the  God  of 
Daniel,  seeing  that  He  is  the  living  God,  steadfast  for 
ever.  His  kingdom  indestructible,  His  dominion  eter- 
nal, Who  delivereth  and  rescueth,  and  worketh  signs 
and  wonders  in  heaven  and  in  earth.  And  why 
should  we  ever  think  or  feel  as  if  this  God  were 
dead,  or  as  if  it  were  a  vain  thing  to  trust  in  His 
goodness  or  to  hope  for  His  mercy?  Though  our 
soul  be  among  lions  and  we  lie  among  them  that 
are  set  on  fire,  even  the  sons  of  men  whose  teeth  are 
spears  and  arrows,  and  their  tongue  a  sharp  sword, 
yet  will  He  send  from  heaven  and  save  us  from  the 
reproaches  of  them  that  would  swallow  us  up. 

"  Judge  not  the  Lord  by  feeble  sense, 
But  trust  Him  for  His  grace  ; 
Behind  a  frowning  providence 
He  hides  a  smiling  face. 

"  His  purposes  will  ripen  fast, 
Unfolding  every  hour ; 
The  hud  may  have  a  bitter  taste, 
But  sweet  will  be  the  flower." 

This  is  a  mixed  world,  where  good  and  evil  are  in 
continual  conflict,  and  where  the  administration  is  not 
always  according  to  the  right,  because  not  yet  final. 
Excellence  and  virtue  do  not  exempt  from  earthly 
ills  and  adversities.  Nay,  the  greater  the  saintship 
and  fidelity,  the  greater  the  trials  are  apt  to  be.     The 


Wm^^ 


THE  MEJDO-PERSIAN  PRIME  MINISTER.      17*^' 

tree  tliat  bears  the  best  fruit  is  always  the  most  assailed, 
shaken  and  stoned.  The  loftiest  mountains  are  most 
familiar  with  storms  and  thunderbolts.  The  prophets 
before  us  were  reviled,  persecuted,  falsely  accused  and 
evil-entreated  because  they  were  loyal  to  their  Lord. 
The  most  perfect  Man  the  world  ever  saw,  and  the 
greatest  benefactor  it  ever  had,  was  defamed,  accused, 
condemned  and  crucified.  It  must  needs  be  that  some 
suffer  for  truth  and  righteousness,  or  the  whole  world 
would  ^o  to  destruction.  The  salvation  of  the  race 
is  by  the  shedding  of  innocent  blood — by  the  sacrifice 
of  the  bodily  peace,  fortunes,  comforts  and  lives  of 
the  righteous.  It  is  part  of  God's  redemption-plan. 
And  therefore  we  are  not  to  think  it  strange  when 
trial  comes,  as  if  God  had  vacated  His  throne  or 
abandoned  His  rule  over  things.  We  are  not  to  con- 
clude that  we  are  saints  because  we  sufler,  but  neither 
are  we  to  give  up  as  forsaken  of  our  heavenly  Father 
because  our  way  lies  through  deep  and  stormy  seas 
and  howling  wildernesses.  Daniel  must  endure  his 
conspiring  foes,  and  may  be  so  compassed  by  them  as 
to  see  no  outcome  but  through  horrible  death. 

See,  then,  also  from  his  case,  and  let  it  be  firmly 
rooted  in  the  soul,  how  we  may  best  conduct  ourselves 
with  reference  to  all  these  things.  From  early  youth 
Daniel  gave  himself  to  God,  and  was  very  strict  not 
to  defile  himself  with  anything  questionable  or  contrary 
to  God's  law.  Here  was  the  first  and  grand  planting 
for  a  true  and  successful  life.  There  is  nothing  like 
an  early  rooting  and  grounding  in  the  truth  and  in 
the  fear  and   love  of  God.     This  was  the  spring  of 


1<S0  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

DanieFs  greatness.  This  was  his  shield  and  buckler 
in  the  midst  of  his  adverse  surroundings.  This 
steadied  him  for  one  of  the  sublimest  careers  that 
ever  was  run  by  mortal  man.  Nor  can  a  young  man 
or  woman  possibly  do  a  better  or  a  wiser  thing  for 
the  successful  running  of  the  race  of  life,  wherever 
or  whatever  it  may  be,  than  to  give  the  heart  to  God, 
to  live  and  die  cleaving  always  and  above  all  to  His 
Word  and  laws.  This  gives  fixedness,  shape  and 
purpose  to  the  being.  This  fashions  character  into 
solidity,  w^ortli  and  beauty.  This  supplies  a  base 
and  groundwork  on  which  to  repose  and  compose 
one's  self,  whatever  storms  life  may  develop. 

In  pursuance  of  his  early  principles,  Daniel  w^as 
very  diligent  in  his  devotions.  He  had  his  oratory 
for  j^rayer,  with  its  window  ever  looking  to  Jeru- 
salem. He  had  no  temple  to  which  to  betake  him- 
self, but  he  made  a  temple  of  his  own  house,  and 
his  upper  room  was  his  holy  of  holies.  Three  times 
a  day  he  went  into  it  with  the  inceiise  of  praise  and 
prayer  to  the  Lord  God  of  his  fathers.  Not  all 
the  cares  of  state,  nor  all  the  perturbations  of  the 
aifairs  of  empire,  nor  all  the  subtle  plottings  and 
malignant  watchings  of  his  foes,  could  induce  him 
to  demit  this  constant  habit  of  his  life.  He  kept 
himself  in  communion  with  heavenly  greatness,  and 
it  served  to  make  him  great  and  to  fill  liim  with  the 
spirit  of  the  holy  Powers.  The  manner,  form  or  pre- 
cise number  of  times  a  day  in  which  he  performed 
his  devotions  was  not  the  material  thing,  but  he  kept 
open    communications    with   Heaven ;    and    this    was 


THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  PRIME  MINISTER.      181 

the  secret  of  his  strength  and  the  nurturing  force 
in  all  his  great  qualities.  Nor  can  any  man  make 
of  himself  and  of  his  life  what  he  should  without 
systematic  earnestness  in  his  prayers. 

But  the  crowning  feature  in  Daniel  was  that  he 
dared  to  obey  God  rather  than  man,  and  would  not 
abate  a  tittle  of  his  religious  habits,  though  know- 
ing that  he  must  pay  the  forfeit  with  his  life  unless 
saved  by  miracle.  He  lived  up  to  his  principles. 
Those  who  watched  and  studied  him  the  closest,  in- 
cited with  all  the  energy  of  hate,  gave  up,  confessing 
it  impossible  to  find  whereof  to  accuse  him,  and  built 
their  final  plot  on  their  confidence  in  his  unflinching 
fidelity  to  his  God  even  though  he  should  die  for  it. 
Nor  Avere  they  mistaken.  He  treated  the  infamous 
decree  as  if  it  were  not.  No  king  or  parliament  has 
any  right  thus  to  interfere  with  private  conscience. 
The  edict  was  itself  an  act  of  treason  to  the  sovereign 
Maker  and  Lord  of  all  things.  It  was  an  attempt 
to  legislate  a  divorce  between  the  creature  and  the 
Creator,  without  consent  of  either.  It  was  therefore 
no  disloyalty,  but  a  higher  loyalty,  to  disregard  and 
disobey  it.  So  Daniel  went  on  with  his  prayers  pre- 
cisely as  he  had  done  aforetime,  and  could  not  be 
turned  from  them  in  the  slightest  particular.  He 
went  to  the  same  place;  he  went  just  as  often;  he 
went  at  the  same  hours  of  the  day  ;  he  knelt  by 
his  open  Avindow  toward  Jerusalem  the  same  as  ever ; 
he  prayed  just  as  loud  and  as  long  as  before  the  de- 
cree existed;  and  he  was  as  calm  and  undisturbed 
about  it  as  if  the  decree  had  never  been.     Here  was 


182  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

the  man  of  principle  and  faith,  and  here  is  our  ex- 
ample for  a  successful  life  and  a  proper  death.  There 
was  no  bravado  or  defiance.  There  was  no  osten- 
tatious putting  of  self  forward  for  applause.  There 
was  no  indecent  haste  or  low  ambition  to  appear  a 
martyr.  But  here  was  the  dignity  of  a  meek  and 
honest  faith,  living  only  for  God,  and  made  up  to 
die,  if  it  must  be,  just  as  the  life  was  shaped,  un- 
ruffled with  regrets  or  fears  and  peaceful  in  the 
keeping  of  a  faithful  God. 

"  Oil  for  a  faith  that  will  not  shrink,     * 

Though  press'd  by  many  a  foe  ; 
That  will  not  tremble  on  the  brink 

Of  poverty  or  woe ; 
That  will  not  murmur  or  complain 

Beneath  the  chastening  rod, 
But  in  the  hour  of  grief  and  pain 

Can  lean  upon  its  God  1 
Lord,  give  us  such  a  faith  as  this, 

And  then,  whate'er  may  come, 
We'll  taste  e'en  here  the  hallow'd  bliss 

Of  our  eternal  home  !" 


LECTURE    NINTH. 

This   World's   Governments;    or,   The 
Vision   of  the  Four   Beasts. 

Daniel  7 : 1-28. 

THE  Book  of  Daniel  is  made  up  of  two  main  sec- 
tions— the  historical  part  and  the  prophetical 
])art.  The  first  part,  over  which  we  have  thus  far 
travelled  in  these  Lectures,  consists  of  a  succession 
of  scenes  relating  to  the  more  personal  history  of  the 
prophet  and  those  with  whom  he  had  to  do;  whilst 
the  second  part,  which  begins  with  the  chapter  now 
before  us,  consists  of  a  collection  of  his  own  prophet- 
ic visions,  beheld  at  different  periods  of  his  life  and 
explained  by  the  heavenly  Powers.  Prophetic  vis- 
ions are  described  in  the  preceding  chapters  also,  but 
they  were  not  Daniel's  visions,  though  he  was  called 
to  interpret  them.  So  there  are  also  some  personal 
particulars  given  in  the  chapters  remaining,  but  only 
to  indicate  the  time  and  circumstances  under  which 
the  visions  were  given  and  explained.  The  topics 
from  this  onward  are  all  prophetic. 

In  point  of  time  the  chapter  on  which  we  now  enter 
takes  us  back  again  to  the  reign  of  Belshazzar,  king 
of  Babylon.  It  was  in  the  first  year  of  that  mon- 
arch's regency  that  Daniel  had  this  vision.  It  came 
to  him   in  the  night-time,  for  it  was  a  period  of  great 

183 


-184  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

darkness  and  sorrow  to  God's  people.  It  came  to 
him  in  the  shape  of  a  dream,  a  vision  of  his  head 
upon  his  bed,  for  the  more  this  world  is  shut  out  of 
our  thoughts  and  attention  the  more  sacred  influences 
from  another  flow  in  upon  us.  He  also  carefully 
wrote  it  all  down  at  the  time. 

What  Daniel  saw  was  "the  sea,"  perhaps  the  Med- 
iterranean Sea,  at  least  some  "  great  sea.''  It  was  not 
in  calm,  but  in  heaving  commotion.  The  winds  of 
heaven  were  fiercely  rushing  upon  it  in  contrary  direc- 
tions, tossing  it  with  tempests  and  driving  it  hither 
and  thither.  And  as  he  looked,  four  great  beasts 
came  up  out  of  it.  They  did  not  all  come  at  once, 
but  in  succession,  one  at  a  time.  The  first  was  like  a 
Lion  with  eagle's  wings.  There  is  no  such  animal 
in  Nature,  but  this  was  the  appearance  to  the  prophet. 
Following  the  career  of  this  beast,  he  saw  its  wings 
plucked  and  the  feathers  all  torn  away.  It  then  was 
lifted  up  from  going  on  its  four  feet,  and  stood  erect 
on  two  feet,  as  a  man,  and  for  its  beast-heart  it  was 
made  to  possess  a  man's  heart.  After  this  winged 
lion  came  up  another  beast,  heavy  and  ponderous,  after 
the  style  of  a  Bear,  but  stronger  and  higher  on  one 
side  than  the  other.  It  had  three  ribs  of  some  muti- 
lated creature  between  its  teeth,  whilst  command  was 
given  to  it  to  "arise  and  devour  much  flesh."  After 
this  bear  came  a  third  beast,  more  monstrous  than 
those  which  preceded  it.  Its  general  form  was  that 
of  a  Leopard,  or  panther,  but  it  had  four  heads,  and 
on  its  back  were  four  wino^s,  like  the  wino-s  of  some 
strong  fowl.     Great  power  was  likewise  given  to  it. 


THIS  WORLD'S  GOVERNMENTS.  185 

After  this  four-headed  and  four-winged  leopard  came 
a  fourth  and  still  more  terrible  beast.  The  prophet 
gives  it  no  name,  and  seems  to  have  been  at  a  loss  to 
what  to  liken  it ;  but  he  describes  it  as  "  dreadful  and 
terrible,  and  strong  exceedingly."  It  had  great  iron 
teeth  and  claws  of  brass  and  ten  horns,  and  it  de- 
voured and  brake  in  pieces,  and  what  was  left  it 
stamped  down  with  its  ponderous  feet.  It  was  diverse 
from  all  the  beasts  that  were  before  it ;  and  in  the 
course  of  time  there  sprang  up  still  another  horn 
among  the  ten,  and  plucked  up  three  of  them  from 
their  roots,  absorbing  them  wholly  in  itself.  It  was 
small  at  first,  but  soon  became  stout  and  imperious, 
the  front  and  leader  of  all  the  remaining  horns.  It 
had  eyes  like  the  eyes  of  a  man  (or  great  sagacity), 
and  a  mouth  speaking  great  arrogance,  defiance  and 
blasphemy.  Of  all  the  beasts  and  horns,  this  beast 
and  its  last  defiant  horn  most  struck  and  affected  the 
prophet.  It  was  upon  this  that  his  chief  interest  and 
anxiety  centred. 

But  while, gazing  upon  these  manifestations  from 
the  agitated  sea,  and  contemplating  the  several  careers 
of  these  monsters,  another  scene  opened  upon  him. 
Whilst  the  last  beast  was  operating  in  its  eleventli 
horn,  Daniel  saw  thrones  set  in  the  upper  spaces,  as 
if  brought  near  to  the  earth,  and  amid  these  thrones 
the  Eternal  One  seated  in  all  the  solemn  majesty  of 
His  infinite  Godhead.  He  had  upon  Him  the  long 
flowing  robe  of  authority  and  empire,  as  white  as  tlie 
snow  in  purity  and  splendor ;  and  the  hair  of  His 
head  was  as  fair  as  the  unsullied  fleece.     He  seemed 


186  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

to  sit  in  a  throne  of  fire,  resting  on  wheels  of  living 
flarae.  The  lightnings  poured  forth  from  before  Him 
in  incessant  streams.  Thousand  thousands  of  heaven- 
ly ministrants  Avere  with  Him,  and  ten  thousand  times 
ten  thousand  made  up  His  awful  suite.  There  was 
no  mistaking  the  character  of  these  presentations.  It 
was  the  grand  inquest  of  eternity  now  set  for  the 
awarding  of  doom  and  destiny  upon  these  beasts,  es- 
pecially the  last,  blasphemous,  eleventh  horn.  Daniel 
recognized  it  as  the  sitting  of  the  judgment,  and  be- 
held the  books  opened.  He  therefore  watched  with 
intense  interest  to  see  what  would  be  done  with  a 
power  which  had  shown  such  consummate  and  defi- 
ant blasphemy.  Nor  was  he  kept  long  in  suspense  or 
doubt.  The  monster  was  slain  and  its  body  given  to 
the  devouring  fire.  As  for  the  other  beasts,  their  do- 
minion was  taken  away,  and  only  their  reft  existences 
lingered  on  to  the  time  appointed. 

But  still  another  scene  passed  before  the  prophet 
as  part  of  this  same  vision.  He  saw  one  like  the 
Son  of  man  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and  in- 
vested by  the  Eternal  Father  with  dominion  and  glory 
and  a  kingdom,  that  all  })eople,  nations  and  languages 
should  serve  Him,  and  that  He  might  reign  for  ever 
and  ever. 

Such  is  the  description  of  what  the  prophet  beheld. 
It  was. all  so  mysterious  and  awful  that  he  was  im- 
mensely affected  by  it,  and  troubled  in  spirit  as  to 
what  it  meant.  In  his  dream  he  inquired  of  one  of 
the  celestial  beings  whom  he  saw  about  the  throne, 
who  also  told  in  the  vision  what  it  signified — to  wit, 


THIS  WORLD'S  GOVERNMENTS.  187 

that  the  four  beasts  denoted  four  khigs,  dominions  or 
empires ;  that  the  fourth  beast  was  to  be  "  the  fourth 
kingdom  upon  earth  ;"  that  out  of  it  should  arise  ten 
contem])oraneous  kings ;  and  that  after  these  should 
come  up  still  another,  who  would  be  the  most  defiant 
of  them  all,  speak  great  words  against  the  Most  High, 
wear  out  the  people  of  God,  and  seek  to  change  the 
whole  order  of  earthly  things,  wielding  a  power  which 
nothing  but  the  day  of  judgment  would  destroy,  when 
the  sovereignty  should  be  given  to  the  holy  people  of 
God  in  a  new,  abiding  and  heavenly  administration. 

From  this  explanation  of  the  angel  it  is  clear  that 
the  vision  was  intended  to  be  a  symbolic  synopsis  of 
political  history  and  world-power  from  the  first  rise 
of  empire  among  men  to  the  day  of  judgment,  and 
what  is  then  to  take  its  place.  It  accordingly  com- 
passes precisely  the  same  ground  covered  by  the 
dream  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  given  and  explained  in 
the  second  chapter.  The  four  metals  in  the  great 
image  which  Nebuchadnezzar  saw  denote  the  same 
poAvers  as  the  four  beasts  which  Daniel  beheld,  except 
that  the  one  beheld  them  as  a  world-ruler,  from  with- 
out, and  as  would  most  naturally  strike  a  politician, 
whilst  the  other  beheld  them  as  a  spiritual  prophet, 
from  Avithin,  as  they  really  are  in  the  light  of  truth 
and  holiness.  What  the  king  from  his  worldly  stand- 
point beheld  as  a  splendid  colossal  human  figure, 
Daniel  as  a  man  of  God  beholds  as  a  succession  of 
beastly  monsters,  savage,  cruel,  despotic  and  unhu- 
man.  But  in  both  instances  the  thing  set  f  )rth  is 
one  and  the  same  world-power,  in  its  fourfold  devel- 


188  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

opment  and  varied  phenomena  from  the  commence- 
ment of  secular  empire  to  its  final  termination,  when 
the  sublime  and  eternal  rule  of  Heaven  shall  be  set 
up  in  its  place,  to  change  no  more. 

There  has  been  little  or  no  question  among  inter- 
preters tiiat  the  first  beast  stands  for  the  Babylonian 
empire,  the  sun  of  which  w^as  about  to  set  when  Dan- 
iel saw  this  vision.  It  here  appears  as  the  noblest  of 
beasts,  with  the  addition  of  the  wings  of  the  noblest 
of  birds,  just  as  it  appeared  to  its  most  illustrious 
head  as  the  noblest  of  metals  shaped  according  to  the 
noblest  part  of  man.  The  Scriptures  elsewhere  liken 
Nebuchadnezzar  to  a  lion  and  his  armies  to  eagles  (Jer. 
iv.  7,  13;  Ezek.  xvii.  3,  12),  and  the  characteristic 
marks  of  his  empire  were  great  savage  strength,  mag- 
nificence and  irresistible  conquest.  It  was  a  lion  with 
eagle's  wings.  But  its  aggressions  soon  flagged,  its 
eagle- wings  were  plucked  and  its  career  of  conquest 
stopped.  By  the  lessons  wdiich  God  taught  its  most 
distinguished  king  it  was  lifted  up  from  the  crouch- 
ing attitude  of  a  beast  of  prey,  and  made  to  stand 
erect  as  a  man,  whilst  the  weaker  and  gentler  heart 
of  a  man  was  given  to  it.  By  the  experiences  to 
which  Nebuchadnezzar  was  subjected  its  wild  and 
savage  spirit  became  humanized.  Thus  every  fea- 
ture of  the  description  answers  to  the  facts  recorded 
concerning  this  power. 

Nor  is  there  any  difficulty  in  tracing  'the  corre- 
spondence between  the  second  beast  and  the  Medo- 
Persian  dominion,  which  conquered  B&bylon  and  suc- 
ceeded it  in  the  sovereignty  of  the  w^orld.     The  burly 


777 AS"  WORLD'S  GOVERNMENTS.  189 

brute  answers  to  the  heavy  chest  of  Nebuchadnezzar's 
image.  The  two  sides,  one  higher  and  stronger  than 
the  other,  fit  to  the  dual  composition  of  tliis  empire. 
The  three  torn  ribs  in  this  beast's  mouth  also  corre- 
spond. They  answer  to  Lydia,  Babylon  and  Egypt, 
which  the  Medo-Persian  empire  seized  and  held. 
The  bidding  of  it  to  devour  much  flesh  was  likewise 
fulfilled  in  the  great  waste  of  human  life  which  cha- 
racterized the  ponderous  aggressions  of  this  power, 
which  never  had  the  speed  and  agility  of  a  winged 
lion,  but  always  moved  with  the  huge  heaviness  and 
massive  streno:th  of  the  awkward  animal  here  made 
to  represent  it.  The  Medo-Persian  armies,  even  on 
moderate  expeditions,  ranged  from  a  third  to  a  full 
million  of  men.  Darius  marched  through  the  deso- 
late regions  of  Scythia  with  seven  hundred  thousand 
men,  exclusive  of  a  fleet  of  six  hundred  ships  carry- 
ing a  naval  force  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
more.  Xerxes  came  against  Greece  with  two  millions 
and  a  half  of  fighting  men.  Artaxerxes  brought  an 
army  against  his  brother,  Cyrus  the  Younger,  num- 
bering nine  hundred  thousand,  with  a  contingent  of 
three  hundred  thousand  which  did  not  come  up  in 
time.  Never,  by  any  dominion,  were  such  heavy 
masses  of  men  brought  together  to  such  wholesale 
slauo;hter  and  destruction  as  by  this  Medo-Persian 
power,  thus  fulfilling  every  lineament  of  the  pro- 
phetic picture  drawn  before  that  empire  had  yet 
come  into  existence. 

The  third  beast  was  therefore  the  symbol  of  the 
next  "  great "  power  which  succeeded  the  Medo-Per- 


190  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

sian,  which  was  none  other  than  the  Macedonian  em- 
pire as  extended  and  established  by  the  conijuests  of 
Alexander.  The  leopard  is  not  one  of  the  noblest  or 
greatest  of  animals,  but  belongs  more  to  the  lion  order 
than  to  that  of  the  bear.  It  is  of  a  fierce  and  cruel 
nature,  noted  in  the  Scriptures  for  its  fleetness,  its  in- 
sidious and  watchful  lying  in  wait  for  its  prey,  and  its 
very  sudden  bounding  upon  the  objects  of  its  attacks. 
But  this  particular  leopard  had  the  further  assistance 
of  four  wings,  greatly  intensifying  the  idea  of  celerity 
and  quickness.  All  this  is  pre-eminently  true  of  the 
conquests  of  Alexander.  It  is  written  of  him  that 
'^  he  was  impetuous  and  fierce  in  his  warlike  expe- 
ditions as  a  panther  after  his  prey,  and  came  on  his 
enemies  with  that  speed  as  if  he  flew  with  a  double 
pair  of  wings."  He  began  his  wars  at  the  age  of 
twenty  years,  and  at  thirty-two  the  world  had  been 
subdued  to  his  authority.  Nations  w^ere  his  play- 
things, thrones  were  his  toys.  And  in  a  most  em- 
phatic and  special  sense  dominion  was  given  to  him. 
With  comparatively  insignificant  means  he  reached 
the  most  momentous  results.  Read  his  history  and 
you  cannot  but  wonder  that  such  mighty  empire 
should  have  been  acquired  as  he  acquired  it.  But 
he  did  not  live  to  enjoy  it  or  to  put  it  into  fixed  and 
settled  shape.  Nor  did  he  have  a  regular  successor 
to  organize  it.  It  fell  to  his  four  principal  generals, 
who  ruled  and  administered  it  from  four  different 
centres,  whence  this  winged  leopard  is  represented 
with  four  heads.  It  was  the  same  dominion,  but  ex- 
ercised irom  ibur  points  under  four  sovereigns — Ly- 


THIS  WORLD'S  GOVERNMENTS  3  91 

simachns  for  Thrace  and  Bithynia,  Seleucus  for  Syria 
and  the  East,  Ptolemy  Soter  for  Egypt,  and  Cassander 
for  Macedonia — till  all  was  idtimately  swallowed  up 
in  the  conquests  of  Rome.  Though  Alexander  was 
not  yet  born,  nor  his  father  before  him,  when  Daniel 
wrote,  we  here  have  an  exact  foreshowino;  of  him  and 
his  dominion. 

The  fourth  beast,  however,  is  the  one  that  most  ar- 
rested the  attention  of  the  prophet,  and  whose  career 
and  end  he  was  most  concerned  to  understand.  That 
it  was  meant  to  represent  an  empire,  dominion  or  rule 
in  the  world,  the  same  as  the  three  other  beasts,  we 
are  assured  by  the  angel  who  gave  Daniel  the  inter- 
pretation, saying,  "  These  great  beasts,  which  are  four, 
are  four  kings" — dynasties  or  empires — and  "the 
fourth  beast  shall  be  the  fourth  kingdom  upon 
earth."  But  though  the  descriptions  in  this  case 
would  seem  to  be  the  most  extended,  definite  and  par- 
ticular in  the  whole  account,  and  already  measurably 
determined  by  the  preceding  identifications,  it  is  just 
here  that  the  greatest  diversity  has  arisen  among  ex- 
positors of  these  visions,  and,  as  I  take  it,  witli  the 
least  reason  for  it. 

Taking  this  beast,  as  explained  by  the  angel,  as 
a  particular  form  of  political  world-power,  several 
points  present  themselves  which,  to  my  mind,  inev- 
itably and  certainly  fix  the  identification.  First,  it  is 
completely  successive  to  the  three  preceding  forms 
of  the  great  political  administrations  upon  earth. 
Second,  it  is  a  great  universal  dominion,  and  no  mere 
section  or  fragment  of  coexistent  governments.     And 


192  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

third,  it  continues,  substantially,  in  one  form  or  an- 
other, to  the  end  of  time — to  the  coming  of  the  Son 
of  man  as  the  appointed  King  and  Judge  of  the 
world.  In  other  words,  it  is  the  only  great  world- 
power  from  the  termination  of  the  four-headed  Mace- 
donian empire  to  the  end  of  all  mere  earthly  political 
rule.  Who,  then,  that  but  glances  at  the  way  the 
Macedonian  dominion  ended,  and  at  the  political 
history  of  mankind  from  that  on  to  the  present, 
can  be  at  a  loss  to  find  the  only  great  imperial  do- 
minion or  rule  answering  to  this  prophetic  outline? 
There  is  no  history  of  man  apart  from  it.  There 
"is  no  possibility  of  tracing  the  general  current  of 
human  affairs  from  the  fall  of  the  Macedonian  em- 
pire till  now  without  having  it  before  us  as  the 
mightiest,  the  most  conspicuous,  the  most  long-lived 
and  the  most  decisively  marked  of  all  political  pow- 
ers which  ever  controlled  our  world,  and  thus  far 
exactly  filling  out  the  picture  which  was  shown 
to  Daniel  more  than  two  dozen  centuries  ago. 

The  fourth  great  dominion  upon  the  earth,  that 
which  swallowed  up  the  empire  which  Alexander 
founded,  and  took  its  place,  and  which  has  perpet- 
uated its  laws  and  method  of  rule  in  all  the  govern- 
ments since  that  time,  is  most  manifestly  and  un- 
questionably the  great  Roman  empire,  wliicli  rose 
from  out  the  agitated  sea  of  the  world,  and  added 
territory  after  territory  to  its  iron  sway  till  it  became 
in  reality  the  government  of  the  whole  earth.  When 
we  read  of  the  fourth  beast,  that  it  was  "  diverse 
from  all  the  beasts  that  were  before  it,"  that  it  had 


THIS  WORLD'S  GOVERNMENTS.  193 

teeth  of  iron  and  claws  of  brass,  that  it  was  ^'  dread- 
ful and  terrible,  and  strong  exceedingly,"  that  it 
"  devoured  and  brake  in  pieces,  and  stamped  the 
residue  with  its  feet,'' — we  have  a  complete  sum- 
mation of  what  all  history  has  recorded  concerning 
the  Roman  dominion.  Crushing  power  was  its  chief 
characteristic.  Permanent  subjugation  and  organiza- 
tion on  common  principles  of  law  w^ere  its  distin- 
guishing attributes,  in  which  it  was  diverse  from  all 
preceding  empires.  Unlike  the  great  powers  before 
it,  it  utilized  and  brought  under  every  diversity  of 
form  for  the  building  up  of  one  eternal  authority 
and  dominion.  It  did  not  sweep  over  the  world 
like  a  tornado,  ravaging,  extorting  submission  and 
receiving  tribute,  without  moulding  things  to  itself; 
but  it  relentlessly  consolidated  all  its  materials  into 
a  settled  and  abiding  order  of  common  law  which 
still  holds  its  place  in  living  force  after  the  lapse 
of  more  than  two  thousand  years.  All  the  govern- 
ments on  earth  are  still  essentially  Roman,  and  in 
their  laws  and  codes  Roman  empire  still  holds  the 
sway  of  the  world,  and  must  as  long  as  human  gov- 
ernments exist.  This  fourth  beast  cannot,  therefore, 
stand  for  anything  other  than  the  Roman  dominion 
and  rule. 

As  to  the  ten  horns  that  grow  out  of  this  beast, 
they  may  perhaps  be  somewhat  identifiable  in  the  past 
by  making  the  peculiar  and  blasphemous  eleventh 
horn  represent  the  papacy  ;  but  the  nature  of  the 
presentations  will  not  admit  of  being  confined  to 
what   has   already   transpired.     This   beast   was   not 

13 


194  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

born  with  its  ten  horns,  any  more  than  with  its 
eleventh,  which  came  up  subsequent  to  the  ten. 
They  were  all  developed  as  the  beast  fulfilled  its 
historical  career.  Nor  can  it  be  clearly  shown  that 
just  so  many  divisions  of  the  Roman  dominion  have 
occurred,  either  contemporaneously  or  successively, 
in  the  past.  Neither  does  the  papacy  with  any  ful- 
ness and  particularity  answer  to  what  is  said  of  the 
eleventh  horn.  The  general  type  may  be  the  same, 
but  the  details  will  not  all  apply,  nor  any  of  them 
in  stri(!t  accuracy.  The  eleventh  horn  is  atheistic ; 
the  papacy  never  has  been.  The  eleventh  horn  per- 
secutes and  wears  out  the  people  of  God,  who  are 
given  into  its  power  for  a  definite  period  terminating 
only  with  the  beast's  own  existence  at  the  great  day 
of  judgment ;  but  not  the  half  of  Christendom  is 
within  the  reach  of  the  pope,  nor  has  the  Eastern 
Cluirch  ever  been,  whilst  his  temporal  authority  has 
ceased,  and  with  it  his  power  to  persecute;  and  still 
the  day  of  judgment  has  not  come.  The  papacy  also 
came  into  being  before  the  disseverance  of  the  Roman 
empire  into  the  several  governments  which  some 
take  to  be  the  ten  horns;  but  according  to  Daniel's 
vision  the  eleventh  horn  came  up  after  the  ten. 
Literally  taken,  the  blasphemous  and  persecnting 
dominion  of  the  last  horn  continues  but  three  and 
a  half  years  ;  but  the  papacy  has  existed  more  than 
twelve  hundred  years,  and  more  than  the  twelve 
hundred  and  sixty  years  which  some  read  into  "  a 
time,  times,  and  half  a  time.''  So,  again,  the  tenfold 
partition    of  the  Roman  beast,  subsequent  to   which 


IHIS  WORLD'S  GOVERNMENTS.  195 

the  blaspheming  horn  exercises  his  transient  domin- 
ion, is  just  before  the  destruction  which  sweeps  away 
the  whole  animal  for  ever — that  is,  just  before  the 
Lord  comes  to  judge  the  world  ;  but  the  past  divis- 
ions which  men  count  for  these  ten  horns  have  long 
since  disappeared,  and  no  such  ten  kingdoms  can 
now  be  enumerated.  Besides,  those  kingdoms  all  be- 
longed to  the  western  half  of  the  Roman  empire, 
and  did  not  take  in  its  great  eastern  i3art  at  all. 
These  ten  horns  also  answer  to  the  ten  toes  of  the 
great  image,  but  these  certainly  were  not  all  on 
one  foot. 

From  these  and  other  equally  cogent  reasons  I  am 
compelled  to  refer  this  part  of  the  vision  to  the  fu- 
ture, and  to  take  it  as  a  prophecy  of  the  political 
condition  and  rule  of  the  world  immediately  preced- 
ing the  day  of  judo;ment.  The  great  Roman  beast 
must  yet  somehow  put  itself  forth  in  just  ten  king- 
doms, covering  the  whole  territory  of  the  ancient 
empire,  if  not  the  whole  world ;  and  in  tlie  time  of 
these  horns  there  is  to  come  up  an  eleventh  horn, 
small  at  first,  but  growing  in  might  and  arrogance, 
which  shall  pluck  up  three  of  these  ten  kingdoms  by 
the  roots,  and  enact  a  scene  of  blasphemy,  of  defiance 
of  everything  divine,  and  of  persecution  and  o[)pres- 
sion  to  the  people  of  God  such  as  has  never  been  from 
the  beginning  of  the  world  till  then.  The  Scriptures 
everywhere  speak  of  this  power,  and  also  all  iho. 
Church  Fathers  from  the  days  of  the  apostle  John 
onward.  They  were  accustomed  to  call  it  the  great 
Antichrist  of  the  last  days,  who  should  pervert  and 


196  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

lay  waste  everything  in  the  world,  and  press  his 
awful  domination  for  three  and  a  half  years,  till 
suddenly  overwhelmed  by  the  revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  the  great  day  of  judgment. 

Such,  then,  is  the  outline  of  this  world's  political 
history  as  here  foreshown  to  the  prophet  while  the 
first  of  all  the  great  empires  was  yet  standing.  As 
far  as  time  has  unfolded  the  facts  we  see  how  true  and 
accurate  that  foreshowing  was,  proving  to  us  that  it 
could  have  come  only  from  Him  who  knows  the 
end  of  all  things  from  the  beginning,  and  making  It 
infallibly  certain  that  what  else  of  the  vision  yet 
remains  will  likewise  be  fulfilled  to  the  very  letter. 
And  pre-eminent  among  these  prophetic  indications 
is  the  great  Judgment  which  Is  to  end  man's  dominion 
and  set  up  in  its  place  the  beneficent  and  everlasting 
rule  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.  One  verse  is  assigned 
to  each  of  the  first  three  kingdoms,  one  verse  contains 
the  explanation  of  them,  but  all  the  rest  of  the  vision 
and  explanation  is  occupied  with  this  great  crisis. 
Very  sublime  and  impressive  also  is  the  picture 
which  the  prophet  beheld. 

On  earth  is  the  last  beastly  horn  of  apostate  man's 
dominion,  full  of  the  intensest  Intellectual  subtlety 
and  acuteness,  with  the  loudest  and  most  arrogant  of 
assumptions.  It  is  a  man  energized  with  all  the  power 
of  the  devil,  and  with  his  confederate  kings  defiantly 
setting  himself  over  against  the  Almighty,  destroying 
the  saints  of  the  Most  High  and  ordaining  new  wor- 
ship  and  laws  for  the  world,  whilst  everything  for  an 
allotted  time  is  given  into  his  hand. 


THIS  WORLD'S  GOVERNMENTS.  197 

Heaven,  however,  is  not  indifferent.  Tlie  prophet 
sees  the  eternal  Powers  in  action — the  Throne  of  God, 
and  the  Ancient  of  Days  upon  His  everlasting  seat, 
surrounded  by  thousands  of  thousands  of  heavenlv 
beings,  who  delight  to  do  His  pleasure  and  all  ready 
to  execute  His  will.  He  sees  the  judgment  set,  the 
books  opened,  the  records  of  man's  deeds  and  mis- 
deeds laid  bare,  the  just  and  irrevocable  sentence 
passed  and  the  blasphemous  monster  given  to  the 
devouring  fires.  It  is  the  same  scene  to  which  Paul 
refers  where  he  speaks  of  the  fiery  destruction  of  that 
\Yicked  One,  *^  whose  coming  is  after  the  working 
of  Satan  with  all  power  and  signs  and  lying  won- 
ders, and  with  all  deceivableness  of  unrighteousness." 
2  Thess.  ii.  8-10.  It  is  the  same  scene  which  John 
describes  in  the  account  of  the  battle  of  the  great  day 
of  God  Almighty,  when  ^^the  beast  was  taken,  and 
with  him  the  false  prophet  that  wrought  miracles  be- 
fore him,  and  were  both  cast  alive  into  a  lake  of  fire 
burning  with  brimstone."  Rev.  xix.  It  is  the  same 
scene  to  which  the  Psalmist  alludes,  where  he  says, 
*'  The  kings  of  the  earth  set  themselves,  and  the 
rulers  take  counsel  together,  against  the  Lord,  and 
against  His  Anointed,  saying.  Let  us  break  their 
bands  asunder,  and  cast  away  their  cords  from  us." 
But  ''He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  shall  lauo-h  : 
the  Lord  shall  have  them  in  derision.  Then  shall 
He  speak  unto  them  in  His  wrath,  and  vex  them  in 
His  sore  displeasure.  .  .  .  He  will  break  them  with 
a  rod  of  iron  ;  He  will  dash  them  in  pieces  like  a 
potter's  vessel."  Ps.  ii. 


198  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

For  purposes  which  to  us  are  at  present  inscrutable, 
God  allows  evil  to  live  and  operate  in  our  world,  and 
to  go  forward  with  its  schemes  of  unwisdom  and  in- 
famy to  the  highest  possible  culmination  of  iniquity. 
Bat  it  is  not  because  He  is  powerless  against  it,  or 
because  He  is  indifferent  to  the  affairs  of  men,  or  be- 
cause He  does  not  hold  evil-doers  to  the  strictest  ac- 
countability. From  the  beginning  He  made  known 
how  it  would  be,  what  savage  monsters  would  oppress, 
desolate  and  destroy  the  earth,  and  into  what  defiant, 
blasphemous  and  bloody  domination  the  boasted  prog- 
ress of  this  world  should  develop,  that  mankind  may 
see  and  experience  what  must  come  from  the  throwing 
off  of  His  beneficent  rule,  and  what  horrors  are  in- 
volved in  the  following  of  their  supposed  better  wis- 
dom and  ideas  of  liberty.  But,  at  the  same  time.  He 
has  foreshown  what  estimate  he  puts  upon  it,  and 
what  awful  catastrophes  await  the  enactors  and  abet- 
tors of  such   wickedness. 

Men  think  to  build  up  the  world  upon  their  own 
philosophies  and  atheistic  fancies  and  conceits,  but 
when  all  comes  to  all,  it  is  the  instalment  of  Hell  in 
the  dominion  of  the  earth,  and  the  dashing  of  every- 
thing to  utter  destruction  against  the  invincible  sove- 
reignty of  indignant  Heaven.,  God  can  afford  to  wait 
and  let  all  be  acted  out  to  the  full.  He  is  patient 
because  He  is  eternal.  But  He  is  not  asleep;  nei- 
ther has  He  abandoned  His  prerogatives,  forgotten  His 
threatenings  or  lost  His  Omnipotence.  The  account 
of  all  is  in  His  books.  His  abhorrence  of  the  iniqui- 
tous trampling  of  His  truth  and  honor  is  not  abated 


THIS  WORLD'S  GOVERNMENTS.  199 

because  it  is  for  the  time  restrained.  His  blasting 
thunders  are  ready  for  their  work  when  the  appoint- 
ed time  arrives  to  let  them  loose.  Perdition's  fires 
are  kindled,  and  the  furnace  of  His  consuming  wrath 
is  heating  hotter  and  hotter  every  day  against  the 
nearing  moment  when  its  devouring  flames  shall 
seize  the  bloody  prey  for  which  they  have  been 
clamoring  with  ever-increasing  violence  for  all  these 
ages.  And  the  great  and  terrible  day  of  the  Lord 
surely  cometh,  when  His  fury  shall  be  poured  out 
like  fire,  and  the  wicked  shall  be  as  stubble,  and  the 
world  and  all  that  is  therein  shall  be  consumed  be- 
fore Him.     (See  2  Pet.  iii.) 

But  the  foreshowing  is  not  all  disaster.  The 
prophet  at  the  same  time  saw  One  like  the  Son  of 
man — like  man,  but  not  a  mere  man — man,  but 
much  more  than  man — coming  in  the  clouds  of 
lieaven,  and  receiving  from  the  Ancient  of  Days 
dominion,  glory  and  a  kingdom,  that  all  nations 
and  languages  should  serve  Him  and  share  with 
Him  in  the  blessedness  of  a  divine  and  indestruct- 
ible sovereignty  over  the  whole  earth.  What  Nebu- 
chadnezzar saw  as  the  Stone  cut  out  of  the  mountain 
without  hands  is  here  identified  to  the  prophet  as  the 
God-man,  Christ  Jesus,  the  King  of  glory  and  the 
Captain  of  salvation,  supernal ly  anointed  and  or- 
dained as  the  only  rightful  Lord  of  the  world  Avhich 
He  hath  ransomed  with  His  blood. 

You  remember  how  constantly  the  Saviour  spoke 
of  himself  as  the  Son  of  man  in  connection  with 
every  work  looking  to  the  completion  of  human  re- 


200  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

demption.  It  identifies  Him  as  that  promised  "Seed 
of  the  woman "  which  was  to  bruise  the  serpent's 
head.  It  recognizes  His  human  nature  and  the  sum- 
ming up  of  humanity  in  Him  as  its  representative, 
fulness  and  completion.  It  singles  Him  out  as  the 
Head  of  the  race  for  salvation,  as  Adam  was  the 
head  of  the  race  as  to  nature  and  disaster.  It  pre- 
sents Him  in  the  character  of  the  King  Messiah. 

Equally  familiar  are  you  with  the  evangelic  phrases, 
"kingdom  of  heaven,"  "kingdom  of  God — '^  "the 
kingdom"  of  which  Christ  is  the  King.  It  is  usually 
and  not  improperly  understood  as  the  reign  and  rule  of 
God  through  Christ  which  is  set  up  by  the  Spirit  in 
the  hearts  of  believers.  But  that  is  its  hidden  form,  its 
interior  beginning  only.  It  is  yet  to  be  amplified  and 
manifested  outwardly  in  the  transformation,  glorifica- 
tion and  eternal  regency  with  Christ  of  all  who  are 
Christ's.  It  is  the  sum  of  all  grace  and  good  to  man, 
as  the  Son  of  man  is  the  sum  and  embodiment  of  all 
redeeming  and  glorifying  agencies.  There  is  nothing 
more  precious  in  all  the  Word  and  promises  of  God 
than  is  set  before  us  in  these  familiar  terms.  And, 
what  is  the  more  singular,  they  come  to  us  from  Bab- 
ylon, from  the  visions  and  pen  of  an  official  of  the 
Babylonian  empire.  The  use  made  of  them  in  the 
New  Testament  and  in  common  Christian  theology 
and  discourse  sets  an  honor  and  distinction  upon  Dan- 
iel and  his  prophecies  of  which  few  are  conscious,  and 
impacts  his  prophetic  spirit  with  the  very  heart  and 
soul  of  all  evangelical  ideas  and  consolations. 

The  coming  of  this  Son  of  man  here  spoken  of  was 


THIS  WORLD'S  GOVERNMENTS.  201 

not  His  coining  when  be  first  appeared  as  the  Babe  of 
Betlilehem  and  the  meek  Man  of  Nazareth.  Neither 
was  it  His  investiture  at  His  resurrection  and  ascen- 
sion, as  some  have  taught.  For  the  ten  horns  of  the 
fourth  beast  did  not  tlien  exist,  and  the  destruction  of 
the  blasphemous,  persecuting  horn  that  arises  after  the 
ten  is  still  future,  as  the  day  of  judgment  is  still  fu- 
ture. And  it  is  only  when  the  judgment  sits,  and  the 
fourth  beast  is  finally  slain  and  given  to  the  eternal 
fires,  that  the  Son  of  man  obtains  this  kingdom  and 
enters  upon  His  reign  with  His  saints.  The  great 
judgment  sits  first,  and  He  gets  His  kingdom  and 
takes  this  rule  afterward,  or  as  the  result  and  conse- 
quence of  what  the  great  judgment  brings.  Neither 
has  the  Son  of  man  ever  yet  come  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven,  as  here  beheld,  and  as  everywhere  foretold 
and  promised  by  himself  and  by  all  the  inspired 
apostles  and  evangelists. 

There  is,  then,  to  be  a  future  coming  of  the  Son  of 
man  which  can  be  nothing  short  of  a  literal  and  per- 
sonal apocalypse.  Men  may  question  and  cavil  and 
explain,  and  shrug  their  shoulders,  and  spit  out  ugly 
epithets,  when  we  preach  to  them  and  forewarn  thera 
that  this  same  Jesus  who  died  on  Calvary  and  ascend- 
ed from  Mount  Olivet  shall  presently  so  come  again 
in  the  clouds  of  heaven  as  the  disciples  saw  Him  go 
up  into  heaven.  But  it  is  the  very  heart  and  soul  of 
Christian  hope,  the  pole-star  of  our  Christian  faith, 
the  great  burden  of  the  inspired  messages  of  all  God's 
holy  prophets  since  the  world  began.  According  to 
these  Scriptures,   it  is  only   "scoffers,  walking  after 


202  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

their  own  lusts" — "filthy  dreamers,  feeding  them- 
selves without  fear " — "  clouds  without  water,  car- 
ried about  of  winds " — "  raging  waves  of  the  sea, 
foamino;  out  their  own  shame  " — "  wanderino:  stars, 
to  whom  is  reserved  the  blackness  of  darkness  for 
ever  " — who  taunt  us  and  say,  "  Where  is  the  promise 
of  His  coming  f  for  since  the  fathers  fell  asleep,  all 
things  continue  as  they  were  from  the  beginning  of 
the  creation."  (See  Jude  and  2  Pet.  iii.)  Yes,  "  Yet 
a  little  while,  and  He  that  shall  come  will  come, 
and  will  not  tarry."  Heb.  x.  36.  And  "  when  they 
shall  say.  Peace  and  safety ;  then  sudden  destruc- 
tion coraeth  upon  them,  as  travail  upon  a  w^oman 
with  child ;  and  they  shall  not  escape."  1  Thess. 
V.  3. 

Nor  is  the  kingdom  here  foreshown  a  mere  spiritual 
and  invisible  kingdom,  with  no  outward  and  tangible 
reality,  and  which  can  as  w^ell  coexist  with  the  do- 
minion of  the  beasts  as  not.  According  to  this  vision, 
it  does  not  come,  or  is  only  in  process  of  coming,  till 
the  beast-kingdoms,  to  their  very  last,  are  utterly 
swept  away  and  destroyed.  It  is  distinctly  presented 
as  coming  into  their  place,  and  as  exercising  the  same 
dominion  for  peace  and  blessedness  which  had  been 
for  so  long  perverted  to  every  savage  brutality,  devil- 
rule  and  destruction.  It  is  specifically  said  to  be 
the  dominion  and  kingdom  over  all  peoples,  nations 
and  languages  —  "the  kingdom,  and  dominion,  and 
the  greatness  of  the  kingdom  [or  sovereignty]  under 
the  whole  heaven "  —  the  kingdom  which  "  all  do- 
minion shall  serve  and  obey  " — the  only  government 


THIS  WORLD'S  GOVERNMENTS.  203 

which  shall  tlien  be  upon  earth.  It  must  therefore 
be  a  literal  kingdom  as  truly  as  those  empires  which 
it  displaces  and  supersedes.  John  had  a  vision  of 
its  final  realizatiou,  and  he  heard  the  great  voices  in 
heaven  celebrating  it  as  the  very  government  and 
regency  of  the  world  that  now  is  wrested  from  its 
perverters  and  put  into  the  hands  of  our  Lord  and 
His  Christ,  to  administer  it  as  His  empire  for  ever 
and  ever.  And  whosoever  conceives  or  teaches  con- 
cerning it  in  any  way  so  as  to  cut  out  of  it  the  idea 
of  a  literal  and  real  dominion  of  the  earth,  such  as 
we  may  suppose  that  Adam  would  now  possess  and 
exercise  if  he  had  never  sinned  nor  died,  as  I  read 
God's  word,  browbeats  some  of  the  plainest  texts 
of  Holy  Scripture,  abridges  the  ordination  and  pre- 
rogatives of  the  Son  of  man,  dwarfs  and  disables  the 
Biblical  idea  of  redemption,  and  stultifies  a  great 
element  of  the  faith  and  hope  of  God's  people  in 
all  the  ages   of  time  and  in  heaven  itself. 

And  in  connection  with  that  coming  and  kingdom 
great  and  glorious  things  are  also  here  foreshown  as 
the  portion  of  the  saints.  Though  in  humility,  de- 
pression, disability,  and  more  or  less  persecution  and 
distress  through  all  the  long  and  weary  ages  of  the 
beast-rule,  "  when  the  wicked  are  cut  off  they  shall 
see  it."  When  the  final  and  eternal  kingdom  or 
dominion  of  the  Son  of  man  is  once  set  up  they  are 
also  to  share  in  all  its  prerogatives  and  blessedness ; 
for  what  in  the  fourteenth  verse  is  said  to  be  given 
to  the  Son  of  man  only,  in  the  twenty-seventh  verse 
is  said  to  be  '^  given  to  the  people  of  the  saints  of 


204  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

the  Most  High."  Jesus  is  one  with  his  people. 
They  share  with  Him  in  all  His  virtues,  works  and 
honors  as  their  Head,  Saviour  and  Representative. 
They  are  sons  of  God  through  his  Sonship,  justified 
and  upheld  by  His  righteousness,  and  joint-heirs  with 
Him  to  all  that  He  inherits  and  receives  as  the  Son 
of  man.  If  He  has  an  everlasting  status  of  accept- 
ance and  honor  with  God,  His  people  share  it  with 
Him.  If  He  is  invested  with  the  rule  of  "the  world 
to  come/'  with  dominion  and  glory  and  a  kingdom, 
that  all  people,  nations  and  languages  of  the  future 
eternal  generations  should  serve  Him,  those  who  liave 
borne  the  cross  with  Him,  and  held  fast  to  the  con- 
fession of  His  name  amid  the  apostasies  and  infidel- 
ities of  the  world  that  now  is,  shall  in  like  manner 
share  the  "  kingdom  and  dominion  and  the  great- 
ness of  the  kingdom  under  the  whole  heaven."  Our 
calling  is  to  be  kings  and  co-regents  with  our  glorious 
Lord  in  the  eternal  principalities.  "  Do  ye  not  know 
that  the  saints  shall  judge  the  world  ?  .  .  .  Know 
ye  not  that  we  shall  judge  angels?"  1  Cor.  vi. 
Hath  not  the  Lord  himself  declared,  "  Verily,  ye 
which  have  followed  me,  in  the  regeneration  [the 
general  regenesis  of  things]  when  the  Son  of  man 
shall  sit  in  the  throne  of  His  glory,  ye  also  shall 
sit  upon  twelve  thrones,  judging  the  twelve  tribes 
of  Israel  "  ?  Matt.  xix.  28.  Hath  He  not  caused  it 
to  be  written  from  heaven,  "  He  which  overcometh 
and  keepeth  my  works  unto  the  end,  to  him  will  I 
give  power  over  the  nations,  and  he  shall  rule  them  " 
— "  To  him  that  overcometh  will  I  grant  to  sit  with 


THIS  WORLD'S  GOVERNMENTS.  205 

me  on  my  throne"?  Rev.  ii.  26,  27;  iii.  21.  Is 
it  not  one  of  the  sublimest  songs  which  the  saints  in 
glory  sing  as  they  look  forward  and  wait  for  the  final 
consummation  :  ''  Thou  hast  redeemed  us  to  God  by 
Thy  blood,  and  made  us  unto  our  God  kings  and 
priests,  and.  vje  shall  reign  on  the  earth  "  f  Rev.  v.  ; 
ix.  10. 

Oh,  my  brethren,  the  Church  does  not  half  under- 
stand the  exceeding  great  and  precious  promises  which 
God  has  given  and  guaranteed  to  the  true  and  faith- 
ful followers  of  Jesus,  though  they  shine  out  like  pu- 
rest diamonds  in  all  the  utterances  and  records  of 
His  holy  prophets.  We  are  not  called  to  serve  God 
in  vain.  We  are  not  asked  to  stem  the  tide  and 
endure  the  hardships  of  this  adverse  world  without 
an  abundant  compensation  for  all  when  once  the 
battle  is  over.  Not  only  eternal  life  is  ours,  but 
thrones  and  crowns  and  kingdoms,  of  which  all 
earthly  empire  is  but  the  poor  and  perishable  shadow. 
Let  us  not,  therefore,  grow  weary  and  faint  under  the 
burdens  that  are  now  upon  us.  They  will  soon  be 
lifted  off,  and  give  place  to  a  kingship  supernal  and 
without  end. 


LECTURE   TENTH. 

The  World-Powers  and  Israel;  or,  The 
Ram,  He-goat  and  Little  Horn. 

Daniel  8  :  1-27. 

WE  here  come  to  the  consideration  of  Daniel's 
second  vision,  which  occurred  two  years  sub- 
sequent to  the  one  described  in  the  preceding  chapter. 
The  armies  of  Cyrus  were  at  the  time  investing 
Babylon,  and  as  Daniel  was  in  Babylon  when  the 
city  was  captured,  the  probabilities  are  that  it  was 
there  he  had  this  vision.  The  statement  that  he  was 
"at  Shushan  in  the  2)alace,  which  is  in  the  province 
of  Elam,  by  the  river  of  Ulai,'^  only  designates  the 
locality  in  which  the  vision  placed  him — where  he 
seemed  to  be  in  what  he  saw,  where  he  was  in  spirit — 
without  determining  where  he  was  in  body.  So  John 
in  the  apocalyptic  visions  seemed  to  be  at  different 
places — now  on  earth,  now  in  heaven,  now  on  an 
exceeding  high  mountain — whilst  corporeally  all  the 
time  in  the  isle  called  Patmos.  A  vision  or  a  dream 
may  make  us  seem  to  be  in  very  different  places  from 
those  in  which  we  really  are ;  and  so  "  in  a  vision  '^ 
Daniel  was  "at  Shushan,"  though  in  reality  most 
likely  in  Babylon.  The  reason  why  the  vision  was 
located  in  the  Shushan   palace  was  that  that  was  to 

206 


THE  WORLD-POWERS  AND  ISRAEL.         207 

be  the  royal  seat  of  the  ])o\ver  with  which  this  vision 
begins  and  the  starting-point  of  the  events  contained 
in  this  pro])hecy. 

A  glance  at  the  particulars  in  this  vision  is  enough 
to  satisfy  us  that  we  here  have  again  to  do  with  some 
of  the  same  powers  brought  to  view  in  the  preceding 
chapter  as  well  as  in  Nebuchadnezzar's  dream.  And 
if  any  should  be  disposed  to  think  strange  of  this 
repeated  travelling  over  the  same  ground,  they  need 
only  recur  to  the  existence  of  four  Gospels,  all  de- 
voted to  the  one  subject  of  Christ's  earthly  life,  or 
turn  to  the  number  of  times  Isaiah  describes  the  As- 
syrian invasion,  or  note  how  repetitive  are  the  })roph- 
ecies  touching  tlie  destruction  of  Babylon,  Tyre,  Egypt, 
Moab  and  other  cities,  nations  and  powers.  It  is 
part  of  the  plan  upon  which  revelation  is  formed  to 
give  ''  line  upon  line  and  {)recept  upon  j)recept,"  tliat 
everything  may  be  fully  brought  out  and  the  most 
deeply  impressed.  There  is  a  wonderful  force  in  rep- 
etition, and  particularly  in  the  effective  inculcation 
of  important  truth.  A  thing  needs  to  be  held  before 
the  mind,  and  looked  at  again  and  again,  and  viewed 
from  varied  points  of  observation  and  with  regard  to 
different  qualities  and  relations,  in  order  to  be  thor- 
oughly seen,  understood  and  impressed  upon  the  soul. 
We  are  so  constituted,  and  usually  so  slow  to  take  in, 
that  one  look  will  not  suffice.  We  must  gaze  and 
gaze,  and  ever  come  back  to  look  again  ;  and  even 
then  we  are  prone  to  overlook,  and  fail  to  see. 

But  what,  at  first  glance,  we  might  be  disposed  to 
regard  as  mere  repetitions  are  not  such  in  reality.     A 


208  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

return  to  the  same  subject,  besides  serving  to  emplia- 
size  that  subject,  nearly  always  develops  some   new 
circumstances,  or  puts  it  in  some  new  attitude  or  re- 
lation, or  connects  with  it  some  special  purpose,  asso- 
ciation, duty,  threatening  or  promise.     And  when  the 
subject  is  a  prophecy,  there  is  always  something  con- 
nected wdth  the  repetition  to  adapt  it  to  some  altered 
position,  end  or  intent.     For  this  reason  I  am  always 
suspicious  of  what  are  called  harmonies,  or  attempts 
to  combine  in  one  single  account  what  is  given  by 
the   Spirit   in   separate   accounts.      People   think   to 
strengthen  the  record  by  these  harmonies,  but  for  the 
most  part  they  only  weaken  and  mar  it.     It  is  like 
taking  a  nnmber  of  photographs  of  a  thing  from  va- 
rious points  and  distances,  and  then  trying  to  make 
one  picture  out  of  them   all   by  fitting  together  the 
several  parts  of  each.     It  is  an  absurdity.    God  never 
meant  it  so,  and  man  can  never  succeed  in  it.     What 
w^e  need  is  each  picture  by  itself,  from  its  own  stand- 
point and  with  its  own  individuality.     And  though 
we  have  three  several  visions  covering  the  same  gene- 
ral objects,  and  each  of  them  deals  in  part  with  pre- 
cisely the  same  things,  it  still  is  impossible  to  under- 
stand them  rightly  or  to  get  a  full  impression  of  them 
without  viewing  each  by  itself  entire,  and  apart  from 
the  weaving  in  of  one  with  the  other,  as  I  find  at- 
tempted by  some.     Nor  is  there  any  difficulty  in  ac- 
countino^  for  the  differences  of  these  several  visions. 
Nebuchadnezzar's   dream    gives    a  general    outline 
of  the  political  history  of  the  world  as  viewed  by  a 
world-ruler  and  estimated  from  external  presentations. 


THE  WORLD-POWERS  AND  ISRAEL.         209 

Hence  the  splendid  human  figure,  by  the  side  of  which 
the  kingdom  of  God  appears  in  humility  as  '^a  stone." 
Daniel's  first  vision  gives  a  somewhat  more  particular 
outline  of  the  same  world-power,  but  as  viewed  by  a 
spiritual  prophet  and  estimated  with  reference  to  moral 
properties.  Hence  ferocious  wild  beasts  take  the  place 
of  excellent  metals,  whilst  the  kingdom  of  God  appears 
in  its  real  worth  and  dignity  as  the  crown  of  humanity, 
or  the  Son  of  man  coming  from  heaven  wath  the  sub- 
limest  investiture  from  the  eternal  Throne.  Nebu- 
chadnezzar's dream  contains  no  particular  reference  to 
that  eleventh  horn  in  which  the  iniquities  of  the  rule 
of  man  finally  culminate  and  call  forth  the  great  judg- 
ment. The  picture  is  simply  that  of  the  Avorld-power 
in  general,  through  its  various  phases  to  the  end,  viewed 
from  a  worldly  standpoint.  In  Daniel's  vision  this 
eleventh  horn  is  the  chief  thing,  since  it  is  the  con- 
summation of  that  savage  beastliness  inherent  in  the 
rule  of  apostate  man  wdiich  it  is  the  intent  of  this 
vision  to  exhibit.  Hence  also  that  great  session  of 
the  divine  judgment  whence  the  final  destruction  of 
this  beast-power  proceeds,  for  which  there  was  no 
place  or  occasion  in  that  outward  view  of  things  pre- 
sented to  Nebuchadnezzar.  And  so  the  vision  now 
before  us,  though  it  travels  for  the  third  time  over 
the  same  general  track,  has  its  own  particular  stand- 
point by  which  it  is  conditioned. 

In  the  two  preceding  visions  we  behold  the  pictures 
of  the  })owers  of  the  world  as  a  whole,  without  regard 
to  any  distinction  between  Jew  and  Gentile.  It  is 
human  dominion  in  its  broadest  view,  in  the  entirety 

14 


210  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

of  its  history — first  as  outwardly  considered,  and  then 
as  spiritually  considered,  and  finally  superseded  by  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Hence,  also,  the  language  in  which 
these  revelations,  up  to  the  chapter  now  before  us,  are 
recorded,  which  is  the  common  world-lano-uaw  used 
at  the  time,  and  not  Hebrew;  whilst  the  vision  now 
in  hand  is  given  in  the  language  of  the  Jews,  as  all 
that  follows  in  this  Book.  What  Daniel  is  here 
shown  of  these  world-power  manifestations  he  sees 
and  hears  not  only  as  a  spiritual  man  of  God,  but 
more  jmrticularly  as  a  Jewish  prophet,  and  as  mainly 
concerning  the  Jewish  people.  Hence  the  dominion 
of  Babylon  is  loft  out  entirely,  for  it  was  now  on  the 
eve  of  its  do\vnfall,  and  nothing  more  was  to  come  of 
it  to  the  Jews.  Hence,  also,  nothing  is  said  of  the 
fourth  beast,  except  as  it  might  be  considered  in- 
cluded in  the  third,  and  nothing  of  the  ten  king- 
doms, except  as  represented  or  included  in  the  little 
horn  in  its  final  stage.  Accordingly,  also,  we  here 
read  of  the  spiritual  hierarchy  or  host,  and  their 
prince — of  the  daily  sacrifices,  the  sanctuary  and  the 
pleasant  or  holy  land — of  which  nothing  appears  in 
the  preceding  visions.  It  is  still  the  same  world- 
])ower  in  its  various  forms  which  constitutes  the  sub- 
ject of  the  vision,  but  with  the  emphasis  now  on  what 
particularly  concerns  the  Jewish  people,  and  with  all 
else  touched  but  lightly  or  not  at  all.  It  is  therefore 
a  distinct  vision  to  itself,  and  is  to  be  interpreted  only 
in  its  own  proper  relations  and  intent. 

What  Nebuchadnezzar  saw  as  the  silver  breast  and 
arms  of  the  great  image,  and  what  Daniel   in  the  pre- 


THE  WORLD-POWERS  AND  ISRAEL.        211 

ceding  vision  beheld  under  tlie  image  of  a  clumsy 
Bear,  here  appears  under  the  figure  of  a  solitary 
Ram,  with  two  horns.  The  cliange  of  the  symbol 
lies  in  the  reference  of  the  vision  to  the  Jewish 
])eople.  Medo- Persia,  viewed  in  relation  to  Israel, 
was  not  a  devouring  wild  beast,  but,  for  the  most 
part,  a  friendly  power,  which  religiously  approxi- 
mated toward  the  Sheraitic  race  and  the  theocracy. 
It  was  this  power  which  restored  the  Jews  after  the 
seventy  years  of  captivity  in  Babylon,  and  helped 
them  in  many  ways  in  the  rebuilding  of  their  temple 
and  the  restoration  of  their  worship.  Many  Jews 
long  afterward  continued  to  reside  among  the  Medo- 
Persians,  filled  high  places  in  the  government  and 
exerted  great  influence,  as  we  see  from  the  Book  of 
Esther.  Viewed  as  a  world-power  in  general,  this 
dominion  was  a  ferocious  and  all-eating  Bear,  but  in 
its  relation  to  Israel  it  was  a  much  more  domestic  and 
harmless  animal. 

The  solitariness  of  this  Ram  denoted  the  unity  of 
this  kingdom,  while  the  two  horns  had  reference  to 
the  two  nations  of  which  it  w^as  made  up  and  in 
which  its  chief  power  resided.  Media  w'as  an  in- 
dependent kingdom  long  before  Persia  was  anything 
but  a  province,  but  when  Cyrus  came  to  the  throne 
the  Persian  part  of  the  kingdom  became  much  the 
greater  of  the  two.  This  was  foreshown  in  the  vision, 
in  that  the  horn  which  sprang  up  last  became  much 
higher  than  the  other. 

Daniel  beheld  tliis  Ram  ^^ pushing  ^^  —  thi-usting 
violently    with    its    head — denoting    military    aggres- 


212  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

sions.  These  are  specified  as  being  toward  the  west, 
toward  the  north  and  toward  the  south  from  Shu- 
shan.  The  east  is  not  mentioned,  as  the  Persians 
made  no  important  or  lasting  conquests  in  that  di- 
rection. To  the  westward,  however,  tliey  conquered 
Babylon,  Syria  and  Asia  Minor;  to  the  northward, 
Armenia  and  the  Caspian  countries ;  and  to  the 
southward,  Egypt,  Libya,  etc.  The  history  thus 
agrees  exactly  with  the  vision. 

So,  again,  what  Nebuchadnezzar  saw  as  the  brazen 
abdomen  and  thighs  of  the  great  image,  and  Daniel 
beheld  in  his  first  vision  as  the  four-winged  and  four- 
headed  Leopard,  here  appears  in  the  form  of  a  Goat. 
There  can  be  no  question  that  this  Goat  represents 
the  Grseco-Maeedonian  empire,  and  its  conspicuous 
horn  Alexander  the  Great.  The  inter])Veting  angel 
says,  in  so  many  words,  "The  rough  Goat  is  the 
king  (or  dominion)  of  Grecia,  and  the  great  horn 
between  his  eyes  is  the  first  king."  Even  the  es- 
cutcheon of  this  empire  bore  this  figure.  As  a  world- 
power  in  general  it  had  all  the  savage  qualities  of  a 
Leopard,  but  in  relation  to  the  Jews  it  was  a  mild 
and  fostering  power  rather  than  a  beast  of  prey,  and 
hence  is  here  symbolized  as  a  Goat.  Josephus  relates 
that  when  Alexander  was  on  bis  Eastern  expeditions 
he  came  into  Palestine  with  all  the  pride  of  a  vic- 
torious conqueror,  and  was  about  to  turn  his  armies 
loose  upon  Jerusalem,  but  that  a  remarkable  dream 
on  his  part,  and  another  on  the  part  of  the  Jewish 
high  priest,  served  to  bring  about  a  friendly  con- 
ference, which  resulted  most  favorably  to  the  Jewish 


THE  WORLD-POWERS  AND  ISRAEL.         213 

people.  When  the  great  conqueror  met  the  high 
priest  and  saw  upon  his  golden  mitre  the  great  name 
of  Jehovah,  he  bowed  down  before  it  and  gave  the 
high  priest  his  right  hand.  Having  come  into  Jeru- 
salem, he  had  sacrifices  offered  for  him,  whilst  the 
priests  brought  to  him  this  very  Book  of  Daniel  and 
pointed  out  to  him  the  very  chapter  before  us,  in 
which  the  holy  prophet  had  recorded  the  coming  of 
a  Greek  conqueror  who  should  vanquish  and  destroy 
the  Persian  dominion.  Accepting  the  prophecy  as 
referring  to  himself — as  it  really  did — he  was  so 
pleased  and  assured  with  regard  to  his  plans  that 
he  engaged  to  favor  the  Jews  in  anything  they  might 
ask.  They  therefore  prayed  him  that  they  might 
be  permitted  to  enjoy  their  own  laws  and  institutes 
as  established  by  their  fathers,  and  not  be  required 
to  pay  tribute  in  sabbatic  years.  This  he  willingly 
granted,  engaging  that  the  same  should  hold  for  all 
the  Jewish  peoi)le  who  might  be  found  remaining 
in  Babylon  and  Media  in  case  his  expedition  should 
prove  successful.  Sucdi  a  power,  with  such  a  bearing 
toward  the  Jews,  could  not  be  consistently  symbol- 
ized by  a  ferocious  beast  of  prey,  at  least  not  in  that 
particular  relation.  Hence  the  change  of  figure  here 
from  a  Panther  to  a  Goat. 

The  prophet  beheld  this  Goat  coming  from  the 
west,  for  it  was  to  the  far  west  from  Persia  that  the 
Macedonian  power  originated.  It  came  with  mar- 
vellous velocity  and  determination,  seeming  to  be 
supernaturally  helped.  It  struck  the  Medo-Persian 
Ram,  shattered  both  his  horns,  trod  him  down  and 


214  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

took  his  dominion.  It  required  more  than  a  single 
battle  to  accomplish  this,  bat  it  was  accomplished, 
as  history  tells. 

But  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest  power  and  triumph 
of  this  Goat,  its  great  horn  was  broken — not  in 
battle,  as  the  horns  of  the  Ram  w^ere  broken,  but 
by  the  early  and  unexpected  death  of  Alexander. 
Giving  himself  to  unbridled  excesses  over  his  vic- 
tories, he  was  seized  with  fever,  and  died  at  Babylon 
in  the  thirty-third  year  of  his  age,  about  three  hun- 
dred and  twenty-three  years  before  the  birth  of 
Christ.  His  empire,  however,  still  stood.  The  great 
horn  dropped  off,  but  in  place  of  it  came  up  four 
other  horns.  The  throne  was  nominally  left  to  his 
son,  but  that  son  never  came  to  it.  The  military 
chieftains  whom  he  had  placed  over  the  conquered 
countries  wrangled  and  fought  with  each  otlier  for 
years,  until  finally,  at  the  fall  of  Antigonus,  the 
dominion  settled  into  four  monarchies,  answerino:  to 
the  four  heads  of  the  Leopard  and  the  four  horns 
of  this  Goat. 

Out  of  one  of  these  four  sections  of  the  Mace- 
donian empire  the  prophet  beheld  the  springing  up 
of  "a  little  horn^' — a  sprig  of  one  of  the  four — 
which  waxed  great  toward  the  south,  the  east  and 
the  pleasant  or  holy  land,  even  to  the  host  of  heaven 
— the  hierarchy  of  the  temple — some  of  whom  it 
cast  down  and  stamped  upon,  magnifying  itself 
even  to  the  Prince  of  the  host  (God  himself),  abol- 
ishing the  daily  sacrifice,  wasting  the  sacred  dwelling- 
place,  polluting  the  temple,  setting  up  a  multitude  of 


THE  WORLD-POWERS  AND  ISRAEL.         215 

its  own  over  against  the  heavenly  order,  and  enacting 
the  most  blasphemous  and  murderous  scenes  against 
Jehovah,  His  truth  and  His  people. 

Expositors  in  general  interpret  this  of  the  infa- 
mous Antiochus  Epiphanes.  Jews  and  Christians  for 
nearly  seventeen  centuries  have  been  taking  it  in  this 
application,  at  least  in  its  germinant  and  precursive 
fulfilment.  Nor  have  they  done  so  without  reason. 
Antiochus  Epiphanes  certainly  answers  more  fully  to 
the  prophetic  delineation  than  any  king  or  power  that 
has  yet  existed  since  Daniel  wrote.  He  came  up  out 
of  one  of  the  four  divisions  of  the  empire  of  Alex- 
ander, from  the  stock  of  Syrian  kings,  and  toward  the 
latter  time  of  that  empire,  when  it  already  began  to 
come  under  the  growing  power  of  Rome.  He  came 
up  from  a  very  small  beginning,  from  being  a  hostage 
at  Rome,  with  no  pros})ect  of  ever  becoming  a  great 
king.  He  got  the  kingdom  by  deceits  and  flatteries. 
His  conquests  and  depredations  were  all  in  the  direc- 
tions noted  in  the  vision.  And  especially  his  treat- 
ment of  the  Jews,  his  profanations  of  the  temple,  his 
bloody  tyranny  against  the  faithful  worshippers  of 
Jehovah,  and  his  blaspheuious  audacity  over  against 
God  himself,  well  accord  w^ith  what  is  said  of  this 
horn.  The  writings  of  Josephus  and  the  Books  of 
the  Maccabees  tell  the  story  of  his  doings,  which  one 
cannot  read  withcnit  being  touched  at  the  miseries  he 
inflicted;  all  of  which  wonderfully  accords  with  the 
prophetic  outline. 

Time  would  fail  me  here  to  present  the  merest 
sketch   of  those  infamous  transactions.     Suflice   it  to 


216  VOICES.  FROM  BABYLON. 

say  that  this  vile  man  conceived  the  idea  of  estab- 
lishing throughout  his  kingdom,  inclusive  of  Pales- 
tine, the  worship  of  Jupiter  Olympus,  identifying 
himself  with  that  god,  and  intent  on  making  his 
own  worship  universal.  With  infatuated  zeal  and 
stubbornness  he  tried  to  extirpate  every  other  wor- 
ship, and  particularly  the  worship  of  Jehovah  at  Je- 
rusalem. Among  the  Jews  themselves  he  found  many 
faithless  ones  ready  to  enter  into  his  plans  and  to 
help  on  his  idolatrous  designs.  He  bought  up  these 
traitors,  sold  out  the  high  priesthood  to  the  highest 
bidders,  ejected  one  and  another  from  it  for  a  price, 
and  rifled  the  temple  again  and  again  of  all  the  gold, 
silver  and  treasures  in  any  way  connected  with  it, 
dealing  out  slaughter  and  death  to  those  who  dared 
to  remonstrate.  With  the  most  shameful  perfidy  and 
deceit  he  got  possession  of  Jerusalem,  fell  upon  its 
inhabitants,  destroyed  the  lives  of  multitudes  in  cold 
blood,  robbed  and  destroyed  the  houses,  carried  off 
women  and  children  into  slavery,  made  a  military 
stronghold  of  the  city,  put  the  worst  of  men  into  it  to 
watch  for  and  slay  every  earnest  believer  in  the  God 
of  Abraham  who  might  come  thither  to  do  homage 
to  Jehovah,  polluted  the  sanctuary  on  all  sides  with 
innocent  blood,  ])rohibited  circumcision  on  pain  of 
death,  abolished  the  temple  services  and  kept  it  va- 
cated till  the  weeds  grew  up  in  the  passage-ways  of 
God's  house,  set  the  image  of  his  own  idol  on  the 
Almighty's  altar,  offered  swine's  flesh  in  sacrifice  in 
special  defiance  of  the  God  of  Israel,  and  forced  all 
Jews  who  would   remain  faithful   to  the  religion  of 


THE  WORLD-POWERS  AND  ISRAEL.         217 

their  fathers  to  hide  themselves  in  the  mountains  and 
desolate  places  in  order  to  save  their  lives.  Thus  did 
he  practise  and  prosper,  and  destroy  the  holy  people, 
slaughtering  them  by  thousands  in  times  of  peace  and 
under  professions  of  peace,  magnifying  himself  against 
the  God  of  Israel,  calling  to  his  aid  every  treacherous 
craft,  casting  down  the  rightful  priests,  burning  the 
sacred  books,  determined  to  abolish  both  the  Law  and 
the  prophets  and  to  submerge  the  Jews  and  their  re- 
ligion in  the  vilest  heathen  abominations. 

The  time  which  the  angel  gave  as  marking  the  du- 
ration of  the  treading  down  of  the  sanctuary  by  this 
horn  likewise  accords  with  the  history  touching  Anti- 
ochus.  The  whole  vision  of  the  displacement  of  the 
daily  sacrifice  is  called  '^  the  vision  of  the  evening  and 
the  morning ;''  and  when  it  was  asked,  "  How  long 
shall  be  the  vision?"  the  answer  came,  specially  con- 
firmed as  true,  "Unto  two  thousand  and  three  hundred" 
— not  "days/'  as  our  version  says,  but  —"evening  (and) 
morning ;  then  shall  the  sanctuary  be  cleansed."  The 
allusion  is  not  to  the  evening  and  morning  making  up 
the  day,  but  to  the  sacrifice  interrupted,  which  was  of- 
fered each  morning  and  each  evening ;  and  twenty-three 
hundred  times  of  these  offerings  was  to  be  the  measure 
of  the  interruption,  each  evening  being  counted  as  one, 
and  each  morning  as  one.  This  would  make  the 
angeFs  answer  cover  eleven  hundred  and  fifty  days, 
or  three  years  and  a  portion  of  a  year.  And  so,  ac- 
cording to  the  records  in  the  Book  of  Maccabees,  it 
was  just  three  years  from  the  day  that  the  first  idola- 
trous sacrifice  was  made  upon  the  altar  of  God  undei 


218  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

Antiochus  until  the  first  regular  offerings  were  again 
restored ;  whilst  the  king's  letters  forbidding  the 
regular  sacrifices  were  proclaimed  in  Jerusalem  sev- 
eral months  before  the  sacrifice  to  Jupiter  on  Jeho- 
vah's altar.  Or,  if  we  take  the  twenty-three  hundred 
•^  evening  and  morning  "  as  so  many  ''  days'' — that  is, 
a  little  more  than  six  years — we  again  have  the  length 
of  the  time  from  the  first  denudation  of  the  temple 
by  Antiochus  to  the  righting  of  it  again  under  the 
Maccabean  heroes. 

The  miserable  end  of  this  proud  and  bloody  blas- 
phemer also  answers  well  to  the  end  assigned  to  this 
little  horn.  The  angel  said,  ''He  shall  be  broken 
without  hand,"  indicating  his  destruction  by  some 
supernatural  power  ;  and  after  this  sort  was  the  end 
of  Antiochus  Epiphanes.  Marching  into  Persia  and 
robbing  the  temple  at  Elymais,  he  was  driven  away 
by  popular  tumult.  Receiving  tidings  about  the 
same  time  of  the  defeat  of  his  army  in  Palestine, 
and  of  the  restoration  of  the  temple  services  there, 
he  ravingly  declared  his  purpose  to  exterminate  the 
Jewish  race.  Whereupon  he  was  suddenly  smitten 
with  a  terrible  disease,  like  that  which  befell  Herod, 
and  amid  un measurable  agonies  of  body  and  mind  he 
horribly  ended  his  life  under  what  he  himself  and 
all  beholders  regarded  as  a  manifest  judgment  of  God 
for  his  blaspiiemous  iniquities.  Poly  bins  says  of  him 
that  lie  ''fell  into  a  madness  and  died" — the  madness 
of  inconsolable  bodily  anguish  and  mental  remorse. 
Tluis,  without  violence  from  the  hand  of  man,  he 
miserably  perished ;  and  this  stage  of  the  desolating 


THE  WORLD-POWERS  AND  ISRAEL.         219 

horn  was  at  an  end.  Josephus  declares  nnhesitatlngly 
that  these  events  happened  in  fnlfilment  of  this  eighth 
chapter  of  the  Book  of  Daniel.  And  from  a  review 
of  the  whole  history  it  seems  to  be  abundantly  mani- 
fest that  there  was  in  the  career  of  Antiochus  Epiph- 
anes  at  least  a  preliminary  or  precursive  fulfilment  of 
this  horn. 

But  we  are  not  therefore  to  conclude  that  the  whole 
meaning,  or  even  the  chief  emphasis,  of  this  vision 
has  been  exhausted,  and  is  now  to  be  viewed  as  be- 
longing only  to  the  past.  The  profound  remark  of 
Lord  Bacon  ever  comes  up,  that  ''  there  is  a  latitude 
which  is  agreeable  and  familiar  to  divine  prophecies, 
being  of  the  nature  of  their  Author,  with  whom  a 
thousand  years  are  as  one  day,  and  therefore  they  are 
not  fulfilled  punctually  at  once,  but  have  springing 
germinant  a('com{)lishinents  throughout  many  ages, 
though  the  height  or  fu'ness  of  them  may  refer  to 
some  one  age.''  And  so  we  may  trace  a  general 
identification  of  this  little  horn  in  Antiochus  Epiph- 
anes,  and  perhaps  also  in  some  other  Antichristian 
powers  since  his  day,  whilst  "the  height  or  fulness'' 
of  the  matter  may  still  await  fulfilment.  History  is 
ever  repeating  itself,  and  especially  those  histories 
which  are  singled  out  for  special  description  and  fore- 
announcement  in  the  word  of  God.  And  there  are 
accumulated  items  specifically  given  in  this  chapter 
seemingly  on  purpose  to  prevent  the  conclusion  tliat 
the  vision  in  its  final  fulfilment  belongs  to  any  period 
other  than  that  immediately  preceding  the  great  day 
of  judgment.     Gabriel  was  commissioned  to  tell  Dan- 


220  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

iel,  and  to  make  him  understand,  that  ''  at  the  time  of 
the  end  shall  be  the  vision J^  He  also  distinguishes  be- 
tween a  former  part  and  a  latter  part  in  the  fulfilment, 
and  refers  the  latter  part  to  the  time  appointed  for  the 
end.  He  says  that  the  vision  extends  to  a  remote  pe- 
riod, and  is  "  for  many  days."  He  says  that  the  par- 
ticular rising  up  of  the  king  of  fierce  conntenance  is 
to  occur  ''in  the  latter  time"  of  the  great  world- 
powers,  Avhich  are  contemplated  as  in  some  sort  still 
in  being  up  to  the  day  of  judgment.  The  time  for 
the  full  realization  of  the  vision  is  also  said  to  be 
"  when  the  transgressors  are  come  to  the  full " — at 
the  final  consummation  of  all  rebellion  and  wicked- 
ness— which  is  everywhere  referred  to  the  great  judg- 
ment-period, when  our  God  shall  come  and  shall  not 
keep  silence.  The  character  and  doings  of  this  horn 
likewise  correspond  with  Paul's  Man  of  Sin,  and  Avith 
the  great  Beast  of  the  Apocalypse,  which  are  unmis- 
takably in  being  at  the  time  of  the  revelation  of 
Jesus  Christ  to  judge  the  world.  Hence,  as  Luther 
tells  us,  "  these  chapters  of  Daniel,  as  all  expositors 
unanimously  declare,  refer  to  Antiochus  and  to  the 
Antichrist  of  the  last  times,  in  which  we  are  now 
living."  ( Walch,  vol.  vi.  col.  1458.)  Christ  him- 
self said  of  the  Jews  who  rejected  Him  that  another 
should  come,  not  in  the  name-  of  the  Father,  but  in 
his  own  name,  and  that  him  they  won  Id  receive. 
And  it  is  pre-eminently  this  devilish  pseudo-Saviour 
of  the  last  evil  days  of  this  world,  aronnd  whom  the 
Christ-rejecting  Jews  will  rally,  and  in  whom  all  the 
abomination   and  devil-rule  of  the  Ciirth  will  finally 


THE  WORLD-POWERS  AND  ISRAEL.         221 

head  up,  whom  we  are  to  see  in  this  little  horn  which 
waxes  so  great.  When  that  which  now  hinders  shall 
be  taken  out  of  the  way,  when  the  true  and  waiting 
people  of  God  have  been  caught  up  into  the  clouds 
to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air,  then  shall  be  the  apoca- 
lypse of  that  Wicked  One  whose  coming  is  after  the 
working  of  .Satan,  with  all  power  and  signs  and  lying- 
wonders,  with  all  deceivableness  of  unriirhteousnc'ss, 
captivating  all  that  have  not  the  love  of  the  truth. 
And  nothing  short  of  that  last  and  mighty  scourge 
of  the  world,  whom  the  Lord  will  blast  and  destroy 
with  the  glory  of  His  own  epiphany,  will  satisfy  the 
portraiture  of  this  infamous  horn  as  given  in  these 
visions.  Even  the  Jews  of  Jerome's  time,  as  he  tells 
us,  still  looked  upon  this  prophecy  as  yet  to  have  a 
further  fulfilment  in  another  king  yet  to  arise  and  do 
after  the  style  of  Antiochus,  in  whom  the  wickedness 
of  earth  shall  have  its  final  consummation,  and  whose 
end  shall  be  in  the  great  day  of  God  Almighty. 
"  This,"  said  Jerome,  "  is  also  our  understanding 
concerning  the  Antichrist  whose  shadow  has  thus 
been  projected  before." 

In  this  view  of  the  matter  the  instruction  and  warn- 
ing which  come  to  the  Church  of  our  day  from  the 
contents  and  past  fulfilments  of  this  chapter  are  ex- 
ceedingly important.  As  Antiochus  Epiphanes  and 
his  doings  and  successes  met  the  prophetic  description 
for  that  time,  we  may  the  better  see  and  understand 
by  his  history  how  it  will  be  in  the  last  days.  People 
sometimes  wonder  who  the  final  Antichrist  is,  and  how- 
he  shall  come.     Christian  antiquity,  with  one  voice, 


222  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

answers  :  ^^  He  is  Antiochus  Epiphanes  reproduced, 
ill  larger  proportions  and  intensified  energy,  immedi- 
ately before  the  great  day  of  God  Almighty.'^  And 
by  observing  after  what  manner  and  for  what  reasons 
the  calamitous  inflictions  of  that  Grseco-Syrian  king 
fell  upon  the  Jews  of  old,  we  may  see  and  know  how 
the  final  Antichrist  will  come. 

Certainly,  the  miseries  which  proceeded  from  Anti- 
ochus  came  not  alone  of  his  wickedness  and  power. 
The  source  and  seat  of  all  were  in  the  apostasies 
and  sins  of  the  Jewish  people  themselves,  and  par- 
ticularly of  their  priests  and  rulers.  Too  easily  were 
they  beguiled  and  won  over  by  the  smooth  flatter- 
ies and  soft  speeches  of  this  deceiver.  Too  readily 
were  they  moved  by  his  gracious  professions  and  pro- 
fuse liberality.  And  then  they,  in  their  turn,  sought 
honor,  popularity  and  preferment  from  him  by  base 
concessions,  compromises  and  bribes.  One  of  the 
main  features  of  the  evil  case  was  their  secularization 
of  the  Church  of  God.  They  set  up  Gentile  gymna- 
siums in  Jerusalem,  where  the  Hebrew  youths  might 
be  trained  in  Hellenic  ways.  They  mimicked  Greek 
fashions  in  everything,  and  endeavored  to  assimilate 
the  manners  of  the  people  of  God  to  heathen  usages. 
Foreign  travel,  commerce,  Greek  philosophy,  litera- 
ture, religion  and  the  arts  filtered  in  new  and  strange 
influences,  to  which  place  was  approvingly  given  over 
against  the  institutes  of  Jehovah.  Many  of  the  Jews 
denied  their  own  circumcision.  Three  high  priests — 
one  Jesus,  who  by  means  of  bribery  su})planted  his 
elder  brother  in  the  priesthood,  and  one  Onias,  who 


THE  WORLD-POWERS  AND  ISRAEL.  223 

ill  turn  supplanted  Jesus — Grecisecl  their  own  niunes, 
and  chose  to  be  called  Jason  and  Menelaus ;  whilst 
the  successor  of  the  latter,  Joachitn,  Hellenized  him- 
self into  Alcimus,  and  in  every  way  sought  to  dispar- 
age the  zeal  and  thwart  the  efforts  of  that  heroic 
champion  of  God  and  his  country,  Judas  Macca- 
bseus,  and  attempted  to  betray  him  to  his  heathen 
enemies.  In  a  word,  liberality  and  reform  made  up 
the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  everything  was  fostered 
and  encouraged  which  tended  to  make  Jerusalem  a 
Greek  city — an  Athens,  an  Alexandria  or  an  Antioch 
— till  all  that  was  distinctive  in  the  Jewish  Church 
was  weakened  down  to  a  mere  matter  of  empty  forms 
and  names.  Many  of  the  priests  renounced  tlieir 
belief  in  the  religion  of  their  forefathers,  and  apos- 
tatized from  the  faith  of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  and 
thus  became  the  easy  and  pliant  tools  of  enthroned 
and  persecuting  infidelity.  God  was  forsaken,  and 
He  withdrew  His  grace  and  protection,  took  away 
the  spiritual  privileges  wdiich  were  so  underrated  and 
scorned,  and  turned  the  whole  nation  over  to  their 
heathen  enemies.  They  first  profaned  the  sanctuary, 
and  He  forsook  it.  They  faithlessly  heathenized  Je- 
rusalem, and  he  abandoned  it.  The  holy  of  holies 
was  no  longer  in  truth  the  shrine  of  the  living  God, 
who  had  once  revealed  himself  there  on  the  mercy- 
seat,  and  He  ceased  to  defend  and  protect  it.  And 
the  temple  itself,  built  on  the  s])ot  where  Abraham's 
faith  so  nobly  triumphed,  and  where  David  met  the 
angel  of  God,  became  a  temple  of  Olympian  Jove. 
The   high    priest   himself  sent   a   deputation  to  the 


224  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

Tyrian  games  in  honor  of  Hercules.  In  place  of 
the  sacred  processions  of  palm-bearers  and  singers 
of  hosannas,  who  once  chanted  the  holy  melodies 
in  the  streets  of  Zion  at  the  feast  of  tabernacles, 
were  the  bearers  of  ivy-tufted  thyrsi,  who  sang  lyri- 
cal dithyrambs  in  honor  of  Dionysus.  And  for  the 
waters  drawn  forth  in  golden  urns  from  the  well  of 
Siloam  were  the  libations  from  the  sacrifices  of  un- 
clean animals,  immolated  on  Jehovah's  altar,  on 
which  was  reared  the  image  of  Jupiter  Olympus ! 
The  abomination  of  desolation  had  come,  but  the 
cowardice,  the  ambition,  tlie  covetousness,  the  mu- 
tual jealousy,  the  treachery  and  the  apostasy  of  the 
anointed  priests  gave  occasion  for  it  all. 

To  little  purpose  also  do  we  read  the  Book  of 
Daniel  not  to  find  in  all  this  a  most  solemn  warning 
to  the  Church  of  our  times,  and  for  all  the  days  yet 
to  come,  to  beware  of  the  fascinating  flatteries  and 
secularizing  expedients  and  compliances  v/hich,  in 
the  self-idolizing  spirit  of  spurious  charity,  specious 
liberality  and  heartless  ske})ticism,  would  tempt  her 
to  forget  her  divine  origin  and  heavenly  destiny. 
There  is  a  spirit  abroad  which  would  have  th(.' 
Church  rescind  her  sacred  charter,  cancel  her  au- 
thentic commission  and  assimilate  herself  to  a  mere 
political  or  conventional  institution.  Men  call  it 
a  liberalizing  spirit,  a  spirit  of  improvement,  which 
would  change  our  Christian  schools  and  colleges  into 
mere  secular  gymnasiums  and  scientific  museums  or 
artistic  studios  and  literary  athenaeums;  but  it  is  a 
spirit  which  is  prone  to  treat  the  Holy  Scriptures  as 


THE  WORLD-POWERS  AND  ISRAEL.  225 

mere  human  lucubrations  of  wortliy  men  before  the 
ages  of  better  light,  rationalize  away  all  the  definite 
doctrines  of  the  authorized  creed  into  mere  scholastic 
or  philosophical  theorems,  dissolve  the  sacraments  into 
picturesque  symbolisms  and  visionary  shadows  with- 
out life  or  power,  and  dismantle  the  ministry  and 
services  of  the  Church  as  if  they  never  had  a  solid 
right  to  be  regarded  as  the  appointment  of  very  God 
for  conveying  and  imparting  to  lost  man  the  regen- 
erating, sanctifying  and  only  restorative  gifts  of 
Jehovah's  grace.  It  is  the  spirit  of  Antichrist.  And 
more  and  more  will  this  spirit  strengthen  till  it  has 
effectually  done  its  work.  Paul  specifically  tells  us 
that  in  the  latter  days  men  will  not  endure  sound 
doctrine,  but  after  their  own  lusts  shall  heap  to 
themselves  teachers  who  will  minister  to  these  alien- 
ated fancies.  Creed,  catechisms  and  all  distinctive 
formularies  of  faith,  as  well  as  all  proper  claims  of 
Church  and  sacraments,  they  will  proscribe  and 
trample  under  foot.  Many  whose  sworn  business  it 
is  to  defend  these  things  at  all  costs  will  be  the 
leaders  in  betraying  them.  More  and  more  will  men 
throw  off  the  restraints  of  true  piety  and  religion,  and 
become  lovers  of  their  own  selves,  boasters,  proud, 
blasphemers,  unthankful,  unholy,  without  natural 
affection,  false  accusers,  incontinent,  fierce,  despisers 
of  those  that  are  good ;  having  a  form  of  godliness, 
but  denying  the  power  thereof.  Jesus  himself  says, 
"  When  the  Son  of  man  cometh,  shall  He  find  faith 
on  the  earth?"  And  thus,  by  the  sins,  compromises, 
apostasies  and  general  heathenizing  and  secularizing 


15 


226  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

of  sacred  things  on  the  part  of  the  guardians  of  the 
faith,  the  final  and  full-blown  Antiochus  shall  come 
as  the  just  judgment  of  the  Lord  Almighty  upon 
tliose  who  thus  paved  his  Avay  and  threw  open  the 
doors.     (See  Wordsworth's  Preface  to  Daniel.) 

Oh,  my  friends,  many  of  the  so-called  churches 
and  the  leaders  of  the  prevailing  religious  sentiment 
of  our  day  are  sowing  for  a  harvest  of  miseries  of 
which  they  but  little  dream.  By  the  light  of  holy 
prophecy,  and  by  the  necessities  that  hold  between 
causes  and  their  effects,  I  see  it  coming  on  all  sides 
like  an  overwhelming  flood.  By  the  emptiness  of 
faith  and  life,  which  persist  in  covering  themselves 
with  the  holy  name  of  Christianity  and  religion, 
myriads  who  would  be  honest  with  themselves  are 
stumbling  and  falling,  and  filling  up  the  ranks  of 
downright  infidelity  and  atheism  ;  and  by  the  prom- 
ises of  peace  and  universal  brotherhood  on  the  lips 
of  those  who  think  they  are  leading  the  vanguard 
of  the  Lord's  host,  myriads  on  myriads  more  are 
being  deceived  and  betrayed  to  bitter  disappointments 
and  helpless  miseries  in  this  world,  if  not  to  eternal 
discomfiture  in  the  world  to  come.  In  how  many 
instances  do  we  find  the  very  high  priests  of  God's 
temple  sacrificing  its  holiest  treasures  to  win  the 
favors  of  the  treacherous  and  insatiable  horn  of  the 
world's  power,  selling  themselves  and  their  most 
sacred  trusts  for  the  emoluments  of  the  great  de- 
stroyer !  In  how  many  instances  do  we  find  them 
cajoled  into  the  taking  of  his  side  and  the  espousing 
of  his  cause  over  aszainst  the  Mattatliiases  and   Ele- 


THE  WORLD-POWEBS  AND  ISRAEL.         227 

azars  and  Maccabseuses  who  \YOuld  recall  the  be- 
witched iDultitiide  to  their  proper  senses  and  rally 
them  around  the  old  and  everlasting  standards!  And 
how  can  it  be  otherwise  but  that  tlie  devil-inspired 
world  which  they  have  courted,  and  to  wdiich  they 
thus  give  over  the  heritage  of  God,  shall  eventually 
assert  and  enforce  its  right  to  command,  even  to  the 
seating  of  itself  in  the  temple  of  God,  the  magnifying 
of  itself  over  all  gods,  and  the  dictation  of  infamies 
for  its  own  w^orship  as  the  only  God,  under  whom 
no  true  saints  can  live  except  as  they  remain  secreted 
in  the  desolate  mountains  and  wildernesses  of  the 
earth,  till  the  Lord's  indignation  is  satisfied,  iniquity 
is  perfected  and  the  day  of  God  Almighty  breaks 
in  with  its  riving  thunders  ! 

Daniel,  you  will  observe,  w^as  greatly  affected  by 
these  visions  and  the  explanations  made  of  them  ;  as 
he  well  might  be.  He  fainted,  and  was  sick  for  days. 
Some  take  this  as  a  sort  of  special  visitation  upon  the 
prophet,  that  he  might  not  be  unduly  exalted  through 
the  abundance  of  his  revelations;  but  there  is  no 
ground  whatever  for  such  a  thought.  It  was  an  un- 
precedented scene  of  calamity  to  his  people,  his  coun- 
try .and  his  religion  that  he  thus  beheld ;  and  this  it 
was  that  affected  him.  It  was  not  God's  interference 
to  keep  him  humble,  but  the  exhibit  of  the  terrible 
things  to  happen  to  what  was  dearest  to  his  heart. 
It  w^as  his  cogitations  that  troubled  him,  changed  his 
countenance  and  prostrated  his  enei^ies.  From  this 
Bishop  Newton  draws  what  he  considers  "a  conclu- 


228  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

sive  argument  that  the  calamities  under  Antiochus 
could  not  possibly  be  the  main  end  and  ultimate  scope 
of  this  prophecy."  It  likewise  serves  to  show  how 
wide  is  the  difference  between  the  way  in  which  the 
holy  men  of  old  regarded  sacred  prophecy  and  the 
manner  in  which  it  is  treated  by  the  great  mass  of 
professed  believers  in  our  day.  Nothing  so  interested 
the  prophets  as  the  foreshowing  of  things  to  come. 
Peter  tells  us  that  they  "  inquired  and  searched  dili- 
gently, searching  what,  or  \\diat  manner  of  time  the 
Spirit  which  was  in  them  did  signify,  when  it  testi- 
fied beforehand  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  the  glory 
that  should  follow.''  Daniel's  whole  soul  was  almost 
drawn  out  of  him  by  the  intensity  of  his  interest, 
study,  fasting  and  prayers  with  regard  to  what  was 
here  foreshown.  But  what  is  the  temper  of  our 
modern  theologians  on  the  subject?  The  common 
idea  is  that  a  man  is  a  little  beside  himself  and  de- 
parts from  proper  soberness  if  he  ventures  to  give  any 
serious  attention  to  unfulfilled  prophecy.  Though 
God  has  been  at  the  pains  to  tell  us  much  about 
what  is  yet  to  come,  many  would  warn  us  away  from 
it  as  dangerous  ground,  and  tell  us  that  we  unwar- 
rantably intrude  into  the  secrets  of  the  Almighty  if 
we  undertake  to  read  it  or  entertain  any  definite  ex- 
pectations with  regard  to  it.  '  The  popular  doctrine  is 
that  prophecy  is  not  meant  to  be  understood  until 
after  it  is  fulfilled — that  to  found  any  faith  upon  it  is 
fanaticism — that  none  but  crazed  brains  ever  bother 
themselves  abou*  it  one  way  or  another.  According 
to  these  sober  people,  the  prophets  Avere  the  silliest 


THE  WORLD-POWERS  AND  ISRAEL.         229 

of  men  to  concern  themselves  about  what  they  Avere 
commissioned  to  foretell,  and  Daniel  was  a  particular 
fool  to  let  his  soul  be  troubled  concerning  these  zoo- 
logic  visions  of  things  in  the  distant  ages.  But  this 
is  just  the  difference  between  the  true  and  acknow- 
ledged servants  of  God  and  those  who  claim  to  be 
their  brethren,  successors  and  representatives  in  our 
day.  By  the  Fathers  whatever  the  Holy  Ghost  made 
known  concerning  the  future  was  treasured  and  stu- 
died as  the  most  precious  of  communications,  dwelt 
upon  with  the  most  special  interest  and  heeded  as 
the  guiding  light  of  God  amid  this  world's  abound- 
ing darkness.  But  with  most  of  our  modern  teachers 
to  ignore  and  avoid  what  is  written  about  the  future 
is  the  higher  wisdom  and  the  better  piety.  And  if 
perchance  they  are  pushed  into  the  subject,  the  sum 
of  their  teaching  is  that  it  may  perhaps  mean  this, 
or  perhaps  that,  or  perhaps  nothing  that  we  can  at 
present  decipher.  And  thus  a  vast  and  vitally  in- 
teresting part  of  God's  revelation  is  emasculated  and 
practically  turned  into  a  useless  encumbrance  of  the 
sacred  pages.  Jehovah  says,  "  W^-ite  the  vision,  and 
make  it  plain  upon  tables,  that  he  may  run  that  read- 
eth  it/^  even  though  it  be  a  vision  which  is  yet  for 
an  appointed  time  unknown  to  us.  But  men  have 
become  wiser  than  their  Maker,  and  know  better 
what  becomes  a  sober  theologian  and  a  right  preacher; 
and  we  must  shut  the  Book  and  close  our  mouths 
about  it,  or  consent  to  be  accounted  mad  !  Alas, 
alas  for  the  reigning  religion  of  our  day ! 

Brethren,  if  we  would  be  like  the  holy  prophets. 


230  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

and  prove  ourselves  their  followers,  we  must  have  an 
eye,  an  ear  and  a  heart  for  their  sacred  word  con- 
cerning what  must  shortly  come  to  pass.  Every 
utterance  of  the  Lord  is  precious,  and  especially 
every  word  which  tells  what  we  are  to  look  for  and 
expect.  And  as  you  value  your  safety  in  these  omi- 
nous and  perplexing  times,  and  would  be  ready  for 
what  is  about  to  come  upon  the  earth,  beware  how 
you  ignore  or  neglect  what  God  has  caused  to  be 
written  for  our  learning,  lest,  being  in  darkness,  the 
great  day  should  overtake  you  as  a  thief! 


LECTURE   ELEVENTH. 

The  Chosen   People's   Fortunes;    or,  The 
Seventy  Weeks. 

Daniel  9 : 1-27. 

THIS  chapter,  more  than  any  other  in  the  Book  of 
Daniel,  lays  open  to  us  the  inner  life  of  the 
prophet.  It  shows  that  he  who  was  so  illustrious 
in  his  wisdom  and  public  relations  was  no  less  noted 
for  his  deep  spirituality  and  earnest  private  devotions, 
whilst  it  suggests  that  the  former  were  largely  the  re- 
sult of  the  latter.  True  faith  and  living  piety  help 
to  make  wise  and  great.  Close  personal  commu- 
nion with  God  and  habitual  leaning  upon  Him  are 
the  source  of  man's  greatest  dignity  and  grandest 
successes.  Nor  could  Daniel  have  been  the  man  that 
he  was,  so  honored  a  premier,  so  wise  a  prophet  or  so 
beloved  a  favorite  of  Heaven,  but  for  his  having  been 
so  earnest  a  believer  and  so  devout  a  suppliant.  And 
if  we  would  learn  something  of  the  manner  and  sub- 
stance of  those  prayers  which  he  offered  three  times  a 
day  at  his  window  looking  toward  Jerusalem,  we  here 
have  a  specimen  of  them  written  and  put  in  form  by 
himself,  just  as  it  poured  forth  again  and  again  from 
his  saintly  lips.  Nor  can  I  but  think  that  if  the  gov- 
ernment officials  of  our  day  would  learn  to  indite  and 

2;u 


232  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

use  such  words  as  the  daily  outpouring  of  their  deep- 
est hearts,  they  would  learn  a  patriotism  of  which, 
unfortunately,  they  know  too  little,  though  they  talk 
so  much,  and  our  political  affairs  would  cease  to  be 
the  shame  and  scandal  of  the  country  and  the  mor- 
tifying grief  of  all  right-minded  citizens  wdiich  they 
now  are.  Certainly,  better  public  servant  than 
Daniel,  as  tested  by  three  different  administrations, 
and  fully  admitted  even  by  those  who  hated  him 
most,  never  filled  an  office  of  state.  He  was  ^vise, 
faithful  and  absolutely  faultless.  And  the  secret 
source  of  it  was  that  no  engagements  of  empire,  no 
plots  or  accusations  of  men,  no  subtle  attempts  to 
draw  him  off,  could  ever  serve  to  keep  him  from  his 
prayers  and  duties  to  his  God.  And  here  in  this 
chapter  we  are  enabled  to  come  near  that  open  win- 
dow and  to  listen  to  the  very  words  of  his  intensest 
prayers.  A  writer  on  the  subject  has  said,  "  I  know 
not  that  there  is  in  the  Bible  a  sublimer  litany  than 
that  which  is  contained  in  this  chapter,  or  clauses 
more  appropriate  as  channels  of  a  Christian's  prayers 
than  these  earnest,  beautiful,  yet  simple  petitions.'' 
Happy  they  who  are  kindled  by  the  same  spirit 
to  a  like  unction  ! 

It  is  worth  observing,  too,  by  what  exercises  and 
circumstances  this  particular  intensity  of  devotion 
and  pious  earnestness  was  inflamed  and  fed.  It  ap- 
pears from  the  first  verses  that  Daniel  was  a  student 
of  prophecy,  of  unfulfilled  prophecy,  and  especially 
of  the  numbers  and  dates  contained  in  the  sacred  pre- 
dictions.    It  seems  that  he  was  very  anxious  to  find 


THE  CHOSEN  PEOPLE'S  FORTUNES.         233 

out  about  "  the  times  and  the  seasons  "  to  which  the 
prophetic  word  had  alluded,  and  wished  to  decipher 
all  about  the  days  and  the  years  in  w^hich  God's  fore- 
showings  were  to    be  accomplished.     Many  consider 
such  studies  and  anxieties  the  most  barren  and  dan- 
gerous to  which  we  can  give  ourselves.     It  is  a  com- 
mon idea  that  we  are  not  only  not  called  upon,  but 
not  even  authorized,  to  pry  into  unfulfilled    proph- 
ecies, and  especially  unfulfilled  prophetic  dates.     The 
assertions  are  even  put  forth  in  the  name  of  Christian- 
ity that  it  is  damaging  to  true  piety  and  destructive 
of  all  right  Christian  activity  and  devotion  to  examine 
and  talk  about  such  things.     But  the  holy  Daniel  was 
of  a  different  mind  and  spirit.     He  studied  the  wri- 
tings of  the  prophets.     He  searched   into  what  was 
foretold  to  come  to  pass,  and  particularly  "  the  num- 
ber of  the  years  whereof  the  word  of  the  Lord ''  had 
spoken.     But,  so  far  from  working  harm  to  his  piety, 
or  of  unfitting  him  for  the  practical  duties  of  life,  he 
here  writes  it  down  as  the  special  source  and  spring  of 
the  intensest  of  all  his  devout  activities — the  very  thing 
w^hich  aroused  him  to  the  sublimest  exhibition  of  living 
soul-relieion — which  in  no  manner  unfitted  him  for 
due  attention  to  '^  the  king's  business."     There  is  in- 
deed   much    reason  to  suspect  that  one  of   the  real 
causes  of  the  superficiality  and  leanness  of   modern 
piety  is  that  the  professed  people  of  God  no  longer 
understand  or  believe  what  the  prophets  have  written, 
and  refuse  to  study  or  hear  about  things  to  come  as 
God  has  revealed  them  for  our  learning.     Let  them 
studv  what  Daniel  studied,  and  learn  the  whole  plan 


234  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

of  the  divine  administrations  as  Jehovah  has  sketched 
it  to  us  in  His  word,  and  we  shall  soon  see  and  realize 
more  of  Daniel's  spirit,  wisdom  and  unction.  He 
caught  it  largely  from  books  of  unfulfilled  prophe- 
cies, and  w^e  must  go  to  the  same  source,  and  in  the 
same  way,  if  we  would  be  really  toned  up  to  that  sub- 
limity of  earnestness  and  hold-taking  on  God  which 
this  chapter  records.  The  more  definite  our  appre- 
hensions of  what  God  has  foretold,  and  the  more  sure 
we  are  of  the  certain  fulfilment  of  the  same,  the  more 
contrite,  importunate  and  confident  will  be  our  suppli- 
cations that  He  may  make  haste  and  accomplish  all 
His  blessed  purpose. 

There  is  abundant  material  in  this  prayer  of  Daniel 
on  which  to  dwell  with  interest  and  profit.  The  man- 
ner of  it  was  deliberate,  reverent,  humble  and  self- 
chastening.  He  did  not  rush  into  the  matter  as  the 
unthinking  horse  into  the  battle.  He  set  his  face 
unto  the  Lord,  pre-arranged  the  -subject,  substance 
and  form  of  his  supplications,  and  fasted  in  sack- 
cloth and  ashes,  that  he  might  fittingly  come  before 
that  God  under  whose  chastisements  he  and  his  coun- 
trymen were  then  suffering  for  their  sins.  And  thus 
Ave  need  to  humble  ourselves  under  the  mighty  hand 
of  God. 

The  character  and  attributes  which  this  piece  of 
devotion  ascribes  to  Deity,  are  also  very  impressive 
and  sublime.  The  grandeur  and  awfulness  of  Eter- 
nal Majesty  are  blended  with  unsearchable  goodness 
and  faithfulness,  presenting  to  our  contemplation 
"the  great  and  dreadful  God,  keeping  covenant  and 


THE   CHOSEN  PEOPLE'S  FORTUNES.         235 

mercy  to  them  that  love  Him  and  keep  His  com- 
mandments," whose  almighty  hand  is  in  all  the  ad- 
ministrations on  earth  and  in  heaven,  and  all  whose 
ways  are  righteousness  and  truth. 

The  same  is  vastly  occupied  with  confession  of  sin 
as  the  cause  of  Israel's  miseries.  The  expressions  on 
this  point  are  the  most  explicit,  unreserved  and  con- 
trite. With  deepest  sorrow  of  soul  the  prophet  re- 
hearses the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  the  dark 
catalogue  of  Israel's  offending.  Nothing  is  left  out, 
nothing  is  extenuated,  nothing  is  held  back,  nothing 
is  excused ;  for  so  long  as  people  apologize  for  their 
sins,  or  fail  to  acknowledge  them  with  genuine  con- 
trition and  sorrow,  they  cannot  be  forgiven.  It  was 
not  a  mere  outcry  under  the  miseries  which  sin  had 
brought,  but  an  unreserved  confession  of  its  inherent 
evilness  and  ill-desert,  and  a  thorough  acquiescence  in 
the  righteousness  of  God  in  the  punishments  which 
He  visits  upon  it. 

The  great  subject  of  this  prayer  was  not  simply 
that  affliction  might  be  removed,  but  that  the  house 
and  ordinances  of  God  might  be  restored  and  a  true 
spiritual  recovery  wrought;  for  it  avails  but  little 
to  be  released  from  particular  punishments  of  sin  if 
the  inner  cause  of  them  be  not  healed. 

So  the  plea  upon  which  this  prayer  rests  is  the 
truest  and  only  availing  one — not  any  merit  of  man, 
not  any  right  or  claim  on  the  sinner's  part,  but  alone 
and  entirely  the  mercy  of  God  and  the  honor  of  His 
great_Name. 

And  there  is  also   a  pathos  and   importunity  the 


236  '   VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

most  intense  running  through  and  through  it.  What 
an  outpouring  of  all  the  feelings  and  energies  of  the 
prophet's  being  are  in  that  Kyrie  Eleison  with  which 
he  concludes  ! — 

"  O  Lord,  hear  ! 

"  O  Lord,  forgive ! 

"  O  Lord,  hearken  and  do  ! 

"  Defer  not,  for  Thine  ow^n  sake,  O  my  God ; 

^' For  Thy  city  and  Thy  people  are  called  by  Thy 
Name/' 

Such  praying,  confession  and  suj)plication  could  not 
fail  to  reach  the  gracious  ear  of  an  ever-merciful  Je- 
hovah. And  while  the  prophet  was  yet  speaking  the 
angel  Gabriel  was  sent  on  quick  commission  to  assure 
Daniel  that  his  devotions  were  accepted,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  disclose  to  him  a  full  outline  of  all  that 
was  to  come  to  his  people  in  all  the  ages  of  time. 
And  it  is  to  this  prophecy,  the  fullest,  the  most^  pre- 
cious and  the  most  im])ortant  in  all  this  series,  that 
I  now  invite  your  particular  attention. 

That  it  is  difficult  the  history  of  opinions  concern- 
ing it  abundantly  shows.  That  it  is  of  the  most  mo- 
mentous import  and  intensest  worth  all  agree.  Nor 
can  I  help  but  think  that  most  of  the  trouble  in  un- 
derstanding it  has  originated-  not  so  much  from  the 
prophecy  itself  as  from  the  inadequate,  one-sided  or 
falsely-emphasised  systems  or  pre-occupations  which 
expositors  have  brought  to  it,  and  to  Avhich  they  have 
thought  it  must  needs  be  made  to  conform.  Volumes 
on  volumes  of  the  profoundest  learning  and   minutest 


THE   CHOSEN  FEOFLE\S  FORTUNES.         237 

L'riticism  have  men  devoted  to  it,  and  yet  to  this  day 
the  great  body  of  the  Christian  world  is  still  at  sea 
with  regard  to  a  complete,  straightforward  and  ex- 
hanstive  understanding  of  what  Gabriel  was  so  spe^^ 
cially  commissimied  of  God  to  make  understood. 
Perhaps  if  we  were  particular  to  hear  Gabriel  more, 
and  the  cumbrous  disquisitions  and  rationalizing 
opinions  of  men  less,  we  might  come  to  a  better 
apprehension  of  what  was  thus  made  known  to 
Daniel.  ■  What,  then,  is  to  be  ascertained  from  the 
divine  revelation  touching  the  so-called  ^'seventy 
weeks  ''f 

1.  The  first  remark  I  have  to  make  is,  that  they 
are  not  '^  weeks  ^'  at  all,  in  the  ordinary  acceptation 
of  that  word.  A  "  week,"  as  we  speak,  is  a  period 
consisting  of  seven  days,  but  Gabriel  says  nothing 
about  days.  AVhat  he  speaks  of  is  a  period  of  seventy 
sevens,  without  saying  whether  they  are  sevens  of 
days  or  years  or  thousands  of  years.  But  when  we 
turn  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  chapter  and  note 
what  Daniel  had  been  investigating,  and  observe  to 
what  this  communication  was  to  a  degree  the  divine 
answer,  we  see  exactly  to  what  these  sevens  refer. 
The  prophet  had  been  studying  the  pre-intimations 
of  the  limit  of  the  Babylonian  captivity.  From  the 
sacred  writings,  as  he  tells  us,  he  had  ascertained 
"  the  number  of  the  years^''  and  that  the  Lor<l 
"  would  accomplish  seventy  years  in  the  desolations 
of  Jerusalem."  It  was  because  of  this  knowledge 
that  he  set  himself  to  this  particular  supplication,  as 
God  had  directed   in  connection    with   these  date-in- 


238  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

dications.  And  it  was  in  answer  to  this  prayer,  and 
on  the  precise  subject  of  Israel's  fortunes,  that  Ga- 
briel was  sent  to  give  this  revelation  of  the  so-called 
"  seventy  weeks/'  It  was  time  numbered  by  years, 
and  hence  sevens  of  yem^s,  that  was  the  thought  and 
subject  of  discourse  at  the  beginning  of  the  whole 
matter;  and  it  is  therefore  unwarrantable  to  think 
of  anything  else  than  years — sevens  of  years  and 
seventy  sevens  of  years — in  this  continuity  of  the 
same  general  topic.  There  is  no  prophetic  putting 
of  days  for  years,  as  some  speak — no  symbolism 
whatever — but  a  plain  didactic  continuation  of  the 
discourse  about  the  dates  and  times  in  Israel's  for- 
tunes, in  the  same  terms  understood  which  at  the  be- 
ginning had  been  doubly  expressed.  Not  ^*  weehs,^ 
therefore,  or  sevens  of  days,  are  we  to  understand 
here,  but  sevens  of  years — nothing  more  and  noth- 
ing less. 

2.  These  sevens  of  years  are  given  in  three  distinct 
sections — the  first  a  multiple  of  seven  by  seven  ;  the 
second  a  multiple  of  seven  by  sixty-two;  and  the 
third  a  single  seven,  making  a  series  consisting  sev- 
erally of  forty-nine  years,  four  hundred  and  thirty- 
four  years,  and  seven  years — in  all  ten  times  seven 
sevens  of  years,  covering  the  entire  period  to  which 
the  accomplishment  of  all  that  is  contained  in  this 
prophecy,  from  first  to  last,  is  embraced.  Whether 
these  sections  of  time  are  immediately  continuous  in 
each  instance,  so  that  where  one  ends  the  other 
promptly  begins,  is  not  specifi(^ally  determined,  and 
remains  to  be  ascertained   by  other  elements  of  the 


THE  CHOSEN  PEOPLE'S  FORTUNES.        239 

prediction.  Tlie  first  and  second  sections,  the  forty- 
nine  years  and  the  four  hundred  and  thirty-four 
years,  appear  to  be  unmistakably  continuous,  as  they 
together  are  meant  to  mark  one  specific  and  most 
important  date.  But  this  does  not  seem  to  be  the 
case  with  the  third  section,  as  things  are  spoken  of 
as  occurring  ''  after  ^'  the  expiration  of  the  four  hun- 
dred and  eighty-three  years,  which,  in  their  nature, 
cannot  be  embraced  in  the  final  seven,  but  introduce 
what  would  seem  to  be  a  long  hiatus,  or  intercalary 
period,  between  the  second  and  third  sections,  the 
measure  of  which  is  not  given,  for  reasons  quite  ex- 
plainable from  the  subject  and  nature  of  the  revela- 
tion itself. 

3.  What  is  to  be  accomplished  in  these  seventy 
seven^  of  years,  as  thus  parcelled  out  by  the  angel, 
relates  exclusively  to  the  fortunes  of  Israel  as  a  nation 
and  to  their  city  and  stcde.  This  is  specifically  stated 
by  Gabriel  at  the  very  beginning  as  the  key  to  the 
right  understanding  of  all  that  pertains  to  this  par- 
ticular prophecy.  He  says  that  these  seventy  sevens 
of  years  ''are  determined,"  divided  out,  severed  from 
all  other  reckonings  of  time,  and  appropriated  in  the 
foreknowledge  and  counsel  of  God  "upon  thy  people 
and  upon  the  holy  city;''  that  is,  beyond  mistake, 
upon  the  Israelitish  race  and  their  metropolis.  This 
is  a  vital  point,  and  must  be  taken  with  us  in  all  that 
follows,  or  we  misapply  the  prophecy.  There  is  no 
authority  on  earth  for  shifting  these  statements,  in 
any  of  their  parts,  to  any  people,  city  or  events  but 
those  which  concern  the  Jews  and  Jerusalem.     How- 


240  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON 

ever  else  the  whole  earth,  or  any  portion  of  it  out- 
side of  Abraham's  descendants,  may  be  reached, 
blessed  or  afflicted  through  what  is  here  embraced, 
the  entire  matter  is  presented  by  Gabriel  in  this  dis- 
course in  no  other  light  or  relation  than  that  which 
pertains  to  the  Abraham ic  race,  and  to  Jerusalem  as 
their  representative  city.  It  is  not  the  Jew  and  Jeru- 
salem in  one  case,  and  Christians  and  the  Church  in 
another.  It  is  the  Jew  and  Jerusalem  first,  last  and 
all  the  time,  and  nothing  but  the  Jew  and  Jerusalem, 
and  what  pertains  to  tliem.  If  this  be  not  true,  then 
Gabriel  did  not  tell  the  truth,  for  he  speaks  of  these 
sections  of  the  seventy  sevens  of  years,  and  of  the 
whole  of  them  together,  and*  of  all  that  is  connected 
with  them,  as  being  selected  out  and  determined  of 
God  upon  the  blood-kin  and  people  of  the  prophet, 
then  in  captivity,  and  upon  their  holy  city,  then  in 
ruins,  but  presently  to  be  rebuilt.  Having  settled 
this,  we  rule  out  a  vast  mass  of  ingenious  comment, 
criticism  and  erudition  as  wholly  irrelevant  to  the 
interpretation  of  this  prophecy,  and  clear  the  way 
for  a  consistent  understanding  of  it,  which  is  other- 
wise hopelessly  encumbered. 

4.  A  general  summary  of  what  these  seventy  sevens 
are  to  see  accomplished  is  the  first  thing  explained  by 
the  angel.  Ver.  24.  If  we  ask  for  what  these  periods 
are  thus  divided  out,  we  here  get  the  answer:  (1)  "To 
consummate  transgression '' — finish  it,  bring  it  to  its 
final  stopping-point,  after  which  there  will  be  no  more 
of  it.  (2)  "  To  make  an  end  of  sins  " — seal  them  up, 
shut  them  in  prison,  so  as  never  to  break  forth  again. 


THE  CHOSEN  PEOPLE'S  FORTUNES.        241 

(3)  "  To  cover  iniquity  " — expiate  it  by  adequate  satis- 
fiiction,  blot  it  out,  liide  it  for  ever.  (4)  "  To  bring  in 
everlasting  righteousness^^ — put  man  in  normal  rela- 
tions with  God,  set  human  life  into  thorough  accord 
with  Jehovah's  will  and  law,  induce  a  condition  of 
moral  rectitude,  which  thenceforward  shall  never 
again  be  interrupted,  but  endure  for  all  the  ages. 
(5)  "  To  seal  vision  and  prophet " — authenticate  and 
vindicate  by  fulfilment,  make  good  and  finish  out  in 
fact  and  deed,  all  that  God  hath  spoken  by  the  mouth 
of  all  His  holy  prophets  since  the  world  began.  (6) 
"  To  anoint " — consecrate,  put  into  place  and  effec- 
tiveness— ''a  holiness  of  holinesses,^^  which  is  the  lit- 
eral sense  of  the  words  in  this  last  clause.  It  has 
been  applied  to  the  baptism  or  christing  of  Jesus,  to 
the  reded ication  of  the  tejiiple  and  to  various  other 
things,  one  as  impossible  as  the  other  if  the  actual 
wording  and  connection  is  adequately  observed.  It 
can  refer  to  nothing  less  than  the  completed  outcome 
of  the  redemptive  administrations  as  a  whole — the 
ultimate  result  and  crown  of  grace  and  providence, 
of  which  all  the  prophets  speak.  Zechariah  sings  of 
this  "  holiness  of  holinesses  '^  where  he  says,  "  In  that 
day  there  shall  be  upon  the  bells  [or  bridles]  of  the 
horses,  Holiness  unto  the  Lord  ;  and  the  pots  in 
the  Lord's  house  shall  be  like  the  bowls  before  the 
altar;  yea,  every  pot  in  Jerusalem  and  in  Judea  shall 
be  holiness  unto  the  Lord  of  hosts."  Zech.  xiv.  20, 
21  ;  also  Isa.  xi.  4-9.  It  is  not  the  consecration  of 
a  person,  an  altar  or  a  house,  but  the  consecration 
of  the  whole  nation  and  of  everything  pertaining  to 

16 


242  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

them.  Everything  promised,  prophesied  or  ever  to 
be  hoped  for  Israel  is  thus  summed  up  in  what  these 
seventy  sevens  are  to  bring.  It  is  said  by  the  angel 
that  they  reach  to  "the  consummation/^  and  hence 
to  the  fulfilment  of  all  Scripture  and  prophecy,  other- 
wise called  "  the  regeneration,"  "  the  restitution  of  all 
things.'' 

5.  Having  given  this  sketch  of  final  results,  the 
angel  proceeded  to  explain  the  particular  periods  and 
events  as  included  and  distributed  in  the  various  sec- 
tions of  these  seventy  sevens. 

The  great  section,  and  that  first  announced,  is  the 
sixty-two  sevens  added  on  to  seven  sevens,  or  four 
hundred  and  eighty-three  years,  the  reach  of  which 
was  to  be  to  Messiah  Prince.  As  Christians,  with 
the  New  Testament  in  our  hands,  we  can  have  no 
difficulty  in  determining  who  is  to  be  understood  by 
this  Messiah  Prince.  It  is  here  for  the  first  time  in 
the  Bible  that  we  find  the  word  Messiah  put  thus  ab- 
solutely. It  was  applied  to  Cyrus  in  Isaiah  to  desig- 
nate him  as  a  chosen  instrument  of  God  for  the  deliv- 
erance of  His  people  from  their  long  captivity,  but 
only  in  so  far  as  he  was  a  type  of  that  greater  Deliv- 
erer promised  from  the  beginning  and  looked  for  by 
believers  of  every  age.  At  the  time  Jesus  appeared 
in  our  world  the  Israelitish  people  everywhere  were 
speaking  of  that  coming  Deliverer  as  Messias  or  3fes- 
siah,  meaning  He  who  should  come  as  the  anointed 
and  sent  of  God  to  accomplish  eternal  redemption  in 
Israel.  (See  John  iv.  25,  41 ;  Matt.  ii.  4 ;  Luke  ii.  26; 
iii.  15  ;  John  i.  20 ;  iii.  28  ;  vii.  26  ;  x.  24.)     And  to 


THE  CHOSEN  PEOPLE'S  FORTUNES.         243 

tliat  promised  and  expected  Redeemer  the  reference 
here  must  needs  be.  That  the  promised  Messiah  was 
to  be  a  King,  a  Ruler,  one  administering  with  royal 
authority  and  in  regal  office,  was  also  implied,  if  not 
expressed,  in  all  the  predictions  concerning  Him. 
After  the  establishment  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy 
He  was  continually  referred  to  as  the  Prince  of  the 
house  of  David.  Hence  He  is  here  designated  as 
Messiah  Prince,  and  hence  the  New  Testament 
everywhere  ascribes  kingship  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
as  belonging  to  His  Messiahship.  And  to  Jesus  as 
Messiah  King  these  four  hundred  and  eighty-three 
years  were  to  reach. 

To  what  point  in  the  life  of  Christ,  then,  does  the 
angel  refer  ?  Some  say  to"  His  birth  ;  but  Jesus  was 
not  then  presented  to  the  Jewish  nation  as  their  Prince 
or  King,  though  called  "  king  of  the  Jews  '^  by  the 
Magi.  Some  say  the  reference  is  to  His  baptism  or 
His  anointing  by  the  Holy  Ghost  immediately  after 
His  baptism,  or  both ;  but  not  a  word  w^as  then  said 
to  the  people  about  His  being  King,  but  only  of  His 
being  the  Son  and  Prophet  of  God,  to  whom  they 
should  give  audience.  And  for  more  than  three 
years  of  His  ministry,  in  all  His  authoritative  teach- 
ing and  miraculous  healing,  He  did  not  once  make 
the  slightest  pretensions  to  being  a  hing.  On  the  con- 
trary, when  the  people  would  willingly  have  crowned 
Him,  and  insisted  on  making  Him  their  king,  He 
peremptorily  refused  to  take  any  such  place,  honor 
or  title.  But  the  time  came  when  He  did  make  pro- 
fession and  claim  to  be  the  rightful  King  of  the  Je\\'s, 


244  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

and  so  presented  himself  to  the  Jewish  nation  at  one 
of  the  greatest  of  their  national  festivals  at  Jerusa- 
lem. It  occurred  but  a  few  days  prior  to  His  Pas- 
sion, and  was  one  of  the  principal  and  most  direct 
causes  of  His  condemnation  and  crucifixion.  For 
the  first  time  in  His  career  we  behold  Him  mounted 
as  a  king,  with  multitudes  doing  honor  to  Him  and 
hailing  Him  with  hosannas  as  the  Prince  of  the  house 
of  David.  In  the  midst  of  the  loud-sounding  proc- 
lamations of  Him  as  the  Kivg,  He  triumphantly  rode 
into  Jerusalem,  entered  the  temple,  cast  out  all  them 
that  sold  and  bought  in  the  temple,  overthrew  the 
tables  of  the  money-changers  and  the  seats  of  them 
that  sold  doves,  and  took  to  himself  all  the  authority 
and  majesty  of  the  rightful  King  and  Lord  of  the 
chosen  people,  their  temple  and  their  state.  And 
when  the  officials  came  to  Him,  insinuating  treason- 
ableness  in  these  pretensions,  particularly  in  the  out- 
cries which  hailed  Him  as  the  blessed  King,  the 
Davidic  Prince,  He  promptly  answered,  "  If  these 
should  hold  their  peace,  tlie  stones  ivoidd  immediately 
cry  outr  Luke  xix.  40.  He  had  to  be  presented  to 
the  nation  as  its  rightful  and  anointed  King ;  and 
this  is  when  and  how  it  was  done.  We  make  no 
mistake  on  this  point.  Ancient  prophecy  foretold 
that  the  Messiah  King  should  come  to  Jei'usalem 
sitting  upon  an  ass,  even  a  colt  the  foal  of  an  ass ; 
and  inspiration  under  the  New  Testament  narrates 
this  very  scene,  and  says,  "  This  was  done  that  it  might 
he  fulfilled  lohich  was  spoken  by  the  ^prophet,  saying.  Tell 
ye  the  daughter  of  Sion,    Behold,  thy  Kin(;  cometh 


THE  CHOSEN  PEOPLE'S  FORTUNES         245 

unto  thee.''''  Matt.  xxi.  It  was  liere  specially,  emphat- 
ically and  for  the  first  time  that  Jesus  presented  him- 
self to  the  Jewish  people  as  their  Messiah  Prince; 
and  only  to  this  point  in  His  earthly  history  can  the 
words  of  the  angel  literally  and  fully  apply,  for  not 
till  then  did  He  come  as  the  Ruler,  the  King.  We 
thus  find  the  exact  terminating-point  of  the  angel's 
four  hundred  and  eighty-three  years. 

If,  now,  we  can  find  the  commenciiig-point  equally 
answering  to  the  angel's  description,  we  will  have  at 
once  ample  demonstration  of  the  truth  and  inspira- 
tion of  the  Book  of  Daniel 'and  of  the  Messiahship 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Let  us  see,  then,  whether  we 
can  identify  such  a  point. 

The  communicating  angel  is  very  distinct  and  defi- 
nite. He  tells  of  a  command,  commission  or  edict 
"to  restore  and  to  build  Jerusalem,"  from  the  going 
forth  of  which  on  to  Messiah  Prince  were  to  be  four 
hundred  and  eighty-three  years.  Legitimately  taken, 
this  could  be  none  other  than  a  command  or  commis- 
sion from  some  one  or  other  of  the  Medo-Persian 
kings  under  whom  the  Jews  were  restored.  Three 
several  such  commissions  with  reference  to  the  return 
of  the  Jews  also  appear  upon  the  sacred  record — one 
from  Cyrus,  to  rebuild  the  temple  (given  in  Ezra  i.) ; 
one  from  Artaxerxes,  in  the  seventh  year  of  his  reign, 
to  Ezra,  to  reorganize  the  Jewish  economy  and  wor- 
ship (given  in  Ezra  vii.);  and  one  from  the  same  Ar- 
taxerxes, in  the  twentieth  year  of  his  reign,  to  Nehe- 
miah  (given  in  Neh.  ii.).  Of  these  only  the  last- 
named  was  strictly  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  city..    The 


246  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

first  related  to  the  temple  only ;  the  second  related  to 
the  temple  polity  only ;  but  this  last  related  particu- 
larly to  the  city,  its  streets,  walls  and  defences,  as  a 
residence  and  hold  for  the  Jewish  people  and  state. 
Of  the  three,  the  last  was  politically  by  far  the  most 
important.  It  is  that  which  gave  the  Jews  a  place 
and  standing  again  of  their  own,  and  hence,  above 
all  others,  would  be  the  natural  date  of  Israel's  re- 
newed national  existence.  The  angel's  words  respect- 
ing the  character  of  the  times  in  which  the  rebuilding 
of  which  he  speaks  was  to  occur  also  helps  to  identify 
most  vividly  this  last  commission  as  the  one  meant. 
The  rebuilding  was  to  be  ^'  in  troublous  times,"  amid 
great  straits  and  adverse  pressure.  This  was,  above 
all,  the  case  under  the  third  commission,  which  was 
the  one  given  to  Nehemiah,  and  was  opposed  because 
of  the  fortified  strength  which  it  would  again  give  to 
the  Jews.  We  have  only  to  read  the  Book  of  Nehe- 
miah  to  see  with  what  formidable  difficulties  and  an- 
tagonisms he  had  to  contend,  and  how  the  sword  for 
defence  had  to  be  held  in  one  hand  while  the  trowel 
was  in  the  other.  I  therefore  fix  upon  this  commis- 
sion to  Nehemiah  by  Artaxerxes,  king  of  Persia,  in 
the  twentieth  year  of  his  reign,  as  the  going  forth  of 
the  commandment  to  which  the  angel  referred  as  the 
starting-point  for  the  four  hundred  and  eighty-three 
years  to  Messiah  Prince. 

Now,  as  near  as  the  ablest  chronologists  can  come 
to  certainty,  our  Saviour  was  born  somewhere  about 
four  years  earlier  than  our  common  era  makes  it. 
This  places  Christ's  entry  into  Jerusalem  as  King  in 


THE   CHOSEN  PEOPLE'S  FORTUNES         ^2.^1 

or  close  about  the  year  29  of  our  reckon! ug.  Count- 
ing back,  then,  from  a.  d.  29  four  hundred  and  eigh- 
ty-three years,  we  come  to  the  year  454  B.  c,  or  close 
thereabout,  for  the  time  of  "the  going  forth  of  the 
command  to  restore  and  to  build  Jerusalem."  And 
this,  accordino:to  Archbishop  Ussher,  Trecrelles  and  oth- 
ers, ivas  the  exact  year  noted  as  the  twentieth  of  the  reign 
of  Artaxerxes,  king  of  Persia  !  Precise  chronology  is 
so  involved  and  unsettled  that  it  is  not  possible  to 
reach  absolute  certainty  as  to  any  one  date  of  so  dis- 
tant a  past  and  in  a  region  concerning  which  we  have 
so  little  connected  history.  But  this  twentieth  of  Ar- 
taxerxes is  determined  with  more  harmony,  and  with- 
in a  smaller  limit  of  possible  error,  than  any  other 
similar  date  of  that  age  and  section.  Hengstenberg, 
who  has  gone  into  the  whole  subject  with  an  ability 
and  thoroughness  unsurpassed  by  any  other  man, 
agrees  so  nearly  with  Ussher  and  Tregelles  as  to 
differ  from  them  only  by  a  single  year.  Mahan,  by 
another  and  quite  independent  process,  comes  out  on 
almost  the  same  date.  And  one  of  the  ablest  recent 
writers  on  the  subject  (Hengstenberg's  Christology,  iii. 
223)  states  that  the  range  of  variations  in  all  the 
current  chronological  calculations  in  relation  to  this 
period  of  time  does  not  extend  over  a  circle  of  ten 
years  for  the  })recise  date  of  the  twentieth  of  Artax- 
erxes. estimated  at  four  hundred  and  eia^htv-three 
years  back  from  Clirist's  triumphal  entry  into  Jeru- 
salem. So  close  an  agreement  as  this  does  not  exist 
with  reference  to  any  other  equally  remote  Oriental 
date  which  has  no  astronomical  connections  on  wliicli 


248  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

to  lean.  And  from  all  that  man  now  knows,  or  can 
show  to  the  contrary,  we  are  fully  warranted  in  say- 
ing that  this  communicating  angel  foretold  exactly 
to  the  year  and  month  the  length  of  time  to  elapse 
between  the  going  forth  of  a  word  from  Artax- 
erxes  to  rebuild  Jerusalem  and  the  coming  of  Mes- 
siah Prince  to  that  self-same  city  as  the  anointed 
King. 

6.  The  angel  then  adds  some  further  and  most 
vital  particulars  following  the  termination  of  these 
threescore  and  two  sevens,  but  without  touching  at 
all  the  final  seven.  Though  Christ  as  Messiah  Prince 
came  to  the  Jewish  people,  they  disallowed  His 
claims,  rejected  Him,  condemned  Him  and  had  Him 
crucified.  ''  He  came  unto  His  own,  but  His  own 
received  Him  not."  And  so  the  angel  said,  '^  After 
the  threescore  and  two  sevens,  llessiah  shall  be  cut 
0^" — not  in  the  middle  of  the  last  seven,  as  so  many 
say,  but  simply  "  after  "  the  termination  of  the  sixty- 
two  sevens,  with  no  allusion  to  the  last  seven.  How 
long  "  afte?' "  was  not  said,  but  all  agree  that  the 
cutting  off  is  contemplated  as  close  upon  the  com- 
pletion of  the  four  hundred  and  eighty-three  years 
and  Messiah's  presentation  of  himself  as  the  Prince. 
It  occurred,  in  fact,  within  the  next  six  days  suc- 
ceeding. And  this  cutting  off  of  Christ  was  of  the 
widest,  deepest  and  intensest  description.  The  elders 
of  Israel  condemned  Him,  and  so  cut  Him  oflP  from 
the  congregation  of  God's  professed  people.  The 
Roman  government  gave  Him  up  into  the  hands  of 
His  enemies,  and  so  cut  Him  off  from  its  protection. 


THE  CHOSEN  PEOPLE'S  FORTUNES.         249 

The  soldiers  crucified  Him  with  consent  of  both 
Jewish  and  Gentile  authority,  and  so  cut  Him  oif 
from  the  land  of  the  living.  The  long-promised, 
the  long-looked-for,  the  divinely -chosen  Messiah 
Prince  was  dead,  crucified,  officially  murdered;  and 
the  angel's  word  had  another  item  most  literally  ful- 
filled, demonstrating  the  reality  of  inspiration  and 
the  presence  of  a  foreknowledge  which  could  come 
only  from  God. 

There  has  been  an  endless  amount  of  learned  crit- 
icism to  determine  the  grammatical  construction  of 
the  little  phrase  added  by  the  angel,  which  our  Eng- 
lish translators,  as  all  agree,  have  improperly  ren- 
dered, "  hut  not  for  himself ^  And  in  that  little 
phrase  is  really  the  turning-point  in  the  angel's 
prediction,  from  which  its  only  right  interpretation 
subsequent  to  the  cutting  off  of  Messiah  flows. 
But  whilst  no  two  critics  precisely  agree  as  to  the 
grammar  of  the  terse  but  very  significant  little  words 
of  the  original,  orthodox  expositors  are  well  enough 
at  one  on  the  general  sense  to  be  taken  from  them. 
True  as  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  vicarious  sufferings 
is,  all  hands  concede  that  it  is  not  to  be  maintained 
from  this  passage.  The  reference  is  not  at  all  to 
the  character  of  Messiah's  death,  but  to  the  result 
of  His  rejection  and  cutting  off  upon  the  relations 
and  consequent  fortunes  of  the  Jewish  nation.  In 
whatever  particular  phraseology  we  translate,  the 
inner  meaning  is  that  the  cutting  off  of  Messiah  by 
those  to  whom  He  came  as  their  King  was  the  cut- 
ting  of  themselves   off    from     the    preferments    and 


250  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

guardianship  which  would  have  been  theirs  had  they 
accepted  Him  as  their  King.  As  a  nation  they  re- 
jected their  Messiah  Prince,  and  in  that  they  chose 
and  accepted  rejection  by  Him  as  His  nation.  Kill- 
ing their  King,  they  ceased  to  be  that  King's  people, 
and  precipitated  themselves  to  the  same  level  with 
the  Gentiles,  burdened  with  the  additional  guilt  and 
stain  of  having  killed  their  own  Messiah,  Thus  the 
angel  said,  "After  the  threescore  and  two  sevens 
Messiah  shall  be  cut  oif,  and  it  is  not  to  Him  " — the 
nation  so  cutting  Him  off  being  no  longer  the  nation 
to  Him  in  that  sense  in  which  He  was  and  proposed 
to  be  their  Messiah  Prince.  In  other  words,  the 
angel  here  told  Daniel  that  immediately  after  the 
end  of  a  given  term  of  years  his  people  would  re- 
ject their  Messiah  Prince,  and  cause  Him  to  be 
slain,  and  that  by  consequence  they  would  cease 
to  be  that  Messiah's  people,  and  cut  themselves  off 
from  being  a  nation  to  Him  whom,  by  their  cutting 
of  Him  off,  they  had  made  to  be  no  king  to  them. 
And  we  are  all  the  more  sure  that  this  is  the  angel's 
meaning  from  what  he  further  adds  concerning  the 
spoliation  and  destruction  to  befall  the  Jewish  nation 
as  the  consequence  of  their  cutting  off  of  their  proper 
Prince.  As  God's  chosen  people  they  thus  forfeited 
all  their  superior  privileges;  and  so  the  angel  said 
that  their  city  and  temple  should  be  destroyed,  that 
dreadful  invasion  and  desolation  should  overflow  and 
overwhelm  them,  that  their  punishment  should  last 
till  within  seven  years  of  "  the  consummation,"  or 
great  day  of  judgment,  and  that  even  then  the  latter 


THE  CHOSEN  PEOPLE'S  FORTUNES        251 

half  of  those  final  seven  years  should  bring  a  re- 
enactment  upon  them  of  the  scenes  which  their 
fathers  experienced  under  Titus  and  Vespasian. 

How  accurately  all  this  has  been  fulfilled  up  to  this 
present  we  know.  Jerusalem  fell  amid  horrors  and 
fearful  desolations.  Through  full  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  years  have  the  holy  city  and  temple  now  been 
in  ruins,  helplessly  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles,  and 
its  people  scattered  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  with 
God's  judgments  cleaving  to  them  with  a  tenacity 
unexampled. 

7.  But  with  all  this  following  the  termination  of 
the  threescore  and  two  sevens  and  the  cutting  off  of 
Messiah,  there  still  remains  a  final  section  of  the  sev- 
enty to  which  nothing  thus  far  has  been  referred.     The 
angel  therefore  proceeds  (ver.  27)  to  tell  us  concerning 
that  last  seven.     You  will  notice  that  he  makes  it  ter- 
minate at  "  the  consummation,"  when  the  great  Deso- 
later    receives    his  doom.      This  cannot  be  anything 
short  of   the   final   close   of   this  present  world,  the 
great  day  of  judgment,  which   issues    in  "the  resti- 
tution of  all  things."     These  last  seven  years   must 
therefore   be   counted    backward    from    that   notable 
time,  as   the   others    are    counted    forward    from  the 
going  forth  of  the  command   to   rebuild  Jerusalem. 
It  is  hence  impossible  to  reckon  them  continuously 
from  the  termination  of  the  threescore  and  two,  for 
that  period  ended  more  than  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago,  and  "  the  consummation  "  has  not  yet  come.     As 
the  day  of  judgment  is  still  future,  so  these  final  seven 
years,  which  terminate  at  the  judgment,  must  likewise 


252  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

be  future,  as  the  Christian  Fathers  with  great  unan- 
imity held,  and  as  many  of  the  soundest  of  the  more 
recent  expositors  now  see  and  confess. 

The  things  which  specially  mark  this  final  seven  of 
the  apportioned  seventy  years,  as  stated  by  the  angel, 
are  the  presence  and  doings  of  the  final  Antichrist,  or 
the  prince  elsewhere  abundantly  prophesied  of,  who 
is  here  described  as  the  last  embodiment  of  that 
power  by  which  Jerusalem  and  the  temple  were  de- 
stroyed after  the  cutting  off  of  Messiah.  The  seven 
years  begin  with  the  establishment  of  a  covenant  be- 
tween this  prince  and  many  of  t\\^  Jewish  people, 
which  he  violates  after  the  first  half  of  the  period, 
and  then  goes  forward  with  his  fell  work  during  the 
last  three  and  a  half  years  to  his  sudden  and  ever- 
lasting perdition  at  their  end. 

It  is  thus  included  in  the  A^ery  texture  of  this  fore- 
showing of  the  angel  that  the  Jewish  people  will  be 
largely  regathered  again  from  their  present  dispersion 
to  their  ancient  land,  with  their  temple  rebuilt  and 
their  worship  restored.  It  is  said  of  this  prince  of 
the  destroyers  tliat  "in  the  midst  of  the  seven  he 
shall  cause  the  sacrifice  and  the  oblation  to  cease," 
tliat  for  the  remaining  half  he  will  perpetrate  the 
most  infamous  profanities  and  blasphemies,  and  set 
up  "the  abomination  of  desolation,''  which  the  Sa- 
viour speaks  of,  in  Matt,  xxiv.,  as  "  in  the  holy 
place."  All  this  presupposes  some  regathering  of 
Israel,  the  existence  of  their  temple,  and  something 
of  a  Jewish  renationalization.  This  return  will  be 
in  the  same  anti-Christian  Judaism  which    has  cha- 


THE  CHOSEN  PEOPLE'S  FORTUNES        253 

racterized  this  people  since  Messiah  was  crucified, 
if  not  in  still  intensified  infidelity  ;  for  they  come 
back  and  take  their  place  again  under  compact 
with  a  power  which  is  to  prove  itself  the  most 
blasphemous  and  tyrannical  that  has  ever  existed. 
They  will  have  a  prince,  but  that  prince  will  be 
the  Anticiirist.  According  to  the  angel's  words, 
another  C^sar  is  to  arise — a  pseudo-Christ  and  an 
Antichrist  at  the  same  time.  He  will  come,  not  in 
his  own  power,  but  In  that  of  the  devil.  Him,  ac- 
cording to  the  Saviour's  saying,  the  Jews  as  a  people 
will  receive,  and  will  covenant  with  him  as  their 
proper  Messiah  Prince  over  against  Jesus,  whom 
their  fathers  hanged  on  a  tree. 

But  sadly  will  they  rue  their  misplaced  confidence. 
He  whom  they  accept  as  their  greatest  friend  and 
helper  will  prove  their  fiercest  oppressor  and  de- 
stroyer. He  w^ill  be  to  them  the  second  Antiochus, 
who  will  rob  and  plunder  them,  again  prohibit  their 
sacrifices  except  as  rendered  to  an  idol  he  will  set  up, 
again  pollute  their  temple,  again  drag  oif  many  into 
captivity  or  drive  them  into  the  wilderness,  and  fill 
the  whole  land  with  bloody  desolations  which  only 
the  great  day  of  God  Almighty  will  serve  to  inter- 
rupt and  remove. 

Such,  in  brief,  are  the  contents  of  this  most  import- 
ant chapter.  About  the  last  of  the  seventy  years  of 
the  Babylonian  servitude  Daniel  was  engaged  in  the 
study  of  the  sacred  prophecies  concerning  events  to 
come.  Through  these  investigations  he  was  brought 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  time  for  Israel's  deliver- 


254  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

ance  was  at  hand.  To  fulfil  the  conditions  on  which 
God  had  promised  again  to  undertake  the  cause  of 
His  people,  then  in  suffering  for  their  sins,  he  set  his 
face  unto  the  Lord  in  penitential  supplications,  which 
must  ever  stand  as  one  of  the  intensest  and  sublimest 
specimens  of  penitential  devotion.  In  answer  to  his 
prayers  God  sent  the  angel  Gabriel  to  assure  him  that 
his  prayer  was  heard,  and  to  explain  to  him  the  whole 
future  history  of  his  jieople.  In  seven  sevens  of 
years  from  the  going  forth  of  a  royal  word  to  build 
and  restore  elerusalem  the  restoration  was  to  be  com- 
plete. In  threescore  and  two  sevens  more  Messiah 
Prince,  the  subject  of  promise,  hope  and  prayer  for 
thousands  on  thousands  of  years,  was  to  present  him- 
self, and  immediately  thereafter  He  was  to  be  rejected 
and  cut  off  by  the  elect  nation  whose  King  He  pro- 
posed to  be,  who  thus  cut  themselves  off  from  Him, 
and  subjected  themselves  to  a  deeper,  vaster  and  a 
thirty-fold  more  lasting  desolation  of  their  city  and 
temple  than  their  former  sins  and  apostasies  had 
entailed. 

After  this  sore  experience,  indefinitely  lengthened 
out,  another  count  of  a  single  and  isolated  seven  is 
named  as  apportioned  in  the  divine  counsels  upon 
the  prophet's  people  and  their  city,  the  termination 
of  which  is  specifically  located  at  "  the  consumma- 
tion ''  and  the  great  judgment  upon  the  prince  of 
the  destroyers.  For  the  first  half  of  these  last  seven 
years  the  prophet's  people  are  to  be  under  the  pro- 
tectorate of  "the  prince  that  shall  come,"  the  final 
Antichrist,  who  will  deceive  and   betray  them,  turn 


THE  CHOSEN  PEOPLE'S  FORTUNES        255 

into  a  cruel  oppressor,  interdict  tiie  worship  he  had 
helped  them  to  re-establish  and  covenanted  to  protect, 
set  up  an  idol  of  his  own  in  the  temple  of  Jehovah 
and  bring  about  a  series  of  abominations,  hardships 
and  desolating  impieties,  as  if  hell  itself  had  been 
let  loose  upon  the  world. 

But  his  career  of  wickedness  will  be  short.  Three 
and.  a  half  years  is  the  limit  of  it.  And  then  is 
"the  consummation,"  when  all  that  has  been  fore- 
determined  shall  be  executed  on  the  terrible  Deso- 
later.  And  with  his  destruction  is  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  seventy  sevens,  when  transgression  shall 
be  ended,  sin  finally  shut  up,  all  former  iniquity 
buried,  an  everlasting  righteousness  brought  in,  all 
sacred  vision  and  prophecy  vindicated  and  fulfilled 
and  a  holiness  of  holinesses  installed. 

Great,  awful,  transcendent  revelation !  What  a 
light  it  throws  over  all  the  ages  of  time !  How 
true  to  the  minutest  particular  in  what  of  the  period 
spanned  has  already  passed !  How  sublime  and  over- 
whelming the  demonstration  it  gives  of  tlie  reality 
of  inspiration,  of  the  goodness  and  severity  of  God, 
of  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus,  of  the  guilt  of  rejecting 
Him  and  of  the  infallible  certainty  of  Jehovah^s 
word ! 

And  w^hy,  then,  will  men  persist  in  disbelieving 
the  truth  and  divinity  of  books  that  come  to  us 
with  such  manifest  authentications? 

And  why,  again,  Avill  men  continue  to  disown  and 
reject  Jesus  Christ,  in  whom  the  sacred  prophecies 
have  been  so  astoundingly  fulfilled,  and  the  sad  con- 


256  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

sequences  of  rejecting  whom  confront  us  every  day 
in  every  Jew  we  meet  and  in  every  glance  we  cast 
upon  Judea  and  Jerusalem  ? 

And  why  will  men  be  so  blinded  and  slow  to 
believe  all  that  is  written  as  to  persevere  in  dis- 
crediting the  things  foretold  of  the  future,  though 
they  stand  written  with  equal  plainness  in  the  very 
same  records  and  revelations  so  much  of  which  has 
already  been  realized  to  the  very  letter? 


LECTURE  TWELFTH. 
The  Picture  Filled  m;  or,  The  Vision 

BY    THE    HiDDEKEL. 

Daniel  10:1-21  and  11:1-35. 

THE  part  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  on  which  we 
now  enter  embraces  what  rationalists  and  skep- 
tics have  most  objected  to,  as  arguing  its  non-gen- 
uineness. But  if  we  were  even  to  allow  that  certain 
portions  of  these  two  chapters  have  marks  of  a  more 
recent  origin  than  the  time  of  Daniel,  it  does  not 
therefore  follow  that  the  great  body  of  the  Book  is 
not  what  it  professes  to  be. 

It  is  generally  known  that  this  Book,  in  the  Greek 
version,  once  contained  much  which  has  long  since 
been  set  aside  by  critics  and  the  Church  as  not  at 
all  a  part  of  it.  The  beginning  once  contained  the 
Apocryphal  History  of  Susanna  and  the  Elders ;  the 
third  chapter  once  contained  the  Apocryphal  Song 
of  the  Three  Hebrew  Children  in  the  fiery  furnace ; 
and  at  the  end  once  stood  the  Apocryphal  story  of 
Bel  and  the  Dragon.  On  very  good  grounds  these 
things  have  been  thrown  out,  as  not  belonging  to 
the  genuine  ancient  Book  of  Daniel.  And  it  may 
be,  as  some  orthodox  and  believing  critics  think, 
that  even  the   present  Hebrew  text,   particularly   in 

17  257 


258  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

the  chapters  now  before  us,  embraces  some  things 
which  possibly  were  not  written  by  Daniel. 

The  questions  have  been  asked — Why  is  it  that 
the  Book  is  so  profuse,  detailed  and  repetitious  in 
its  descriptions  of  the  times  of  the  Greek  empire  in 
Syria,  and  of  those  times  only  ?  Why  is  it  that  the 
composition,  in  dwelling  on  those  times,  is  in  the 
most  prosaic  style  of  human  annals?  Why  is  it 
that  this  minute  description  of  events  stops  so  sud- 
denly short  in  Maccabean  days?  And  why  is  the 
whole  remainder  of  the  prophetic  portion  of  the 
Book  so  magnificently  grand  in  outline,  and  just 
these  two  chapters  are  mostly  so  different  ?  A  recent 
writer  on  Daniel  (Bosnnquet)  thinks  that  we  have 
reason  to  thank  skeptical  critics  for  having  drawn 
attention  to  these  remarkable  phenomena,  and  has 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  portions  of  this  Book 
\vhence  most  offence  has  been  taken  were  once  mere 
marginal  commentary,  applying  Daniel's  prophecies 
to  the  times  of  Antiochus  Epi})hanes,  which  was  ac- 
cidentally taken  up  into  the  text  by  some  copyist  or 
transcriber,  who  failed  to  notice  or  note  that  it  was 
no  part  of  the  original  Danielle  record. 

The  particular  passages  falling  under  this  suspicion 
are  chapter  x.  1,  15-21,  and  chapter  xi.  1,  5-35.  By 
omitting  these  passages  it  is  claimed  that  we  have 
the  pure,  original  Book  of  Daniel,  not  only  freed  from 
many  objections  raised  by  infidelity  against  its  gen- 
uineness, but  in  clear,  connected  and  thoroughly  self- 
consistent  form.  And  as  there  is  really  nothing  of 
doctrinal   importance  in   these  particular   paragraphs, 


THE  PICTURE  FILLET)  IN.  259 

and  their  omission  in  no  wise  maims  the  clearness, 
sublimity  and  worth  of  these  prophecies  in  general, 
as  received  by  the  Church,  it  is  held  that  there  is  no 
occasion  for  any  one  to  be  the  least  disturbed  in  case 
these  particular  items  should  be  shown  to  have  come 
from  some  other  hand  than  that  of  the  illustrious  sage 
and  courtier  of  Babylon  and  Medo-Persia. 

The  first  verse  of  chapter  x.  certainly  bears  the  ap- 
pearances of  being  the  remark  of  some  commentator. 
It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  matter,  style  and  form 
of  it  answer  to  those  of  a  man  writing  down  his  own 
opinion  of  Daniel's  vision.  It  reads  precisely  like 
the  uninspired  headings  to  the  (.'hapters  in  our  Eng- 
lish Bibles,  whilst  what  follows  reads  quite  differently. 
It  is  not  according  to  the  way  in  which  Daniel  else- 
where expresses  himself,  and  seems  to  be  at  variance 
with  other  statements  of  the  Book.  It  extends  Dan- 
iePs  life  to  ^'  the  third  year  of  Cyrus,"  whereas  the 
conclusion  of  the  first  chapter  speaks  of  him  as  con- 
tinuing only  "  unto  the  first  year."  It  says  that 
Daniel  '^  understood  the  thing,  and  had  understand- 
ing of  the  vision,"  whereas  Daniel  himself,  at  the  end 
of  it  (chap.  xii.  8),  remarks,  "  I  heard,  but  I  under- 
stood not.^'  It  says,  ^'  the  thing  was  true,"  seemingly 
meaning  that  events  had  turned  out  as  foretold,  just 
as  the  later  Jews  would  say  in  remarking  upon  the 
prophecy,  inasmuch  as  they  believed  it  fulfilled  in  the 
times  and  doings  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes;  but  Daniel 
could  not  so  speak  of  his  predictions,  since  he  did  not 
live  to  see  them  fulfilled ;  and  he  does  not  elsewhere 
use  such  language,  though  the  angel   repeatedly  said 


260  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

that  he  came  to  show  him  the  triitli.  By  locating 
this  vision  in  the  reign  of  Cyrus,  it  also  introduces 
some  question  in  identifying  the  four  succeeding 
kings  of  Persia  in  accordance  with  the  record  of 
chap.  xi.  2-4,  which  would  be  entirely  obviated  by 
the  omission  of  this  verse.  There  is  also  an  internal 
and  circumstantial  coherence  between  the  references 
and  statements  which  follow  it  and  the  particulars 
given  in  the  preceding  chapter,  which  this  verse  ap- 
parently breaks  and  dissevers,  so  as  to  render  an  in- 
telligent explanation  harder  and  more  doubtful.  The 
study,  fasting  and  "words/'  referred  to  by  the  angel 
in  chap.  x.  but  for  this  verse  would  inevitably  be 
taken  as  identical  with  what  was  referred  to  in  chap. 
ix.  Daniel  there  tells  us  of  his  penitential  devotions, 
at  the  beginning  of  wdiich  he  had  the  revelation  of 
the  seventy  sevens  apportioned  out  upon  his  people 
and  the  Holy  City ;  and  he  here  Avould  seem  to  be 
telling  us  that  this  fasting  and  prayer  lasted  "  three 
full  weeks,"  at  the  end  of  which  he  had  the  further 
revelation  which  is  described  in  the  remaining  por- 
tions of  the  Book.  And  when  the  angel  in  ver.  12 
says,  "  Froyn  the  first  day  that  thou  didst  set  thine  heart 
to  understand,  and  to  chasten  thyself  before  God,^'  he 
seems  to  refer  specifically  to  the  particulars  stated  in 
chap.  ix.  2-4. 

So,  again,  the  section  from  ver.  15  to  the  end  of 
the  chapter,  inclusive  of  ver.  1  of  chap.  xi.  is  thought 
to  be  a  continuation  of  this  alleged  comment.  The 
prophetic  manner  is  adopted,  but  that  was  common 
with  the  later  Jews  when  they  wished  to  give  weight 


THE  PICTURE  FILLED  IN.  261 

and  sacredness  to  their  discourse,  whilst  the  state- 
ments furnish  a  series  of  particuUirs  singularly  flat  in 
character  as  well  as  somewhat  peculiar  in  contents. 
Whether  from  Daniel  or  not,  it  is  largely  a  para- 
phrastic repetition  of  what  was  said  elsewhere.  It 
also   introduces  a  style  of  colloquy  found  only  here. 

The  section  contained  in  vers.  5-35  of  chap.  xi. 
has  been,  from  the  time  of  Porphyry,  the  great  stum- 
bling-block with  regard  to  this  wonderful  Book.  It 
has  about  it  the  marks  of  an  inferior  style  of  com- 
position not  in  harmony  with  the  rest  of  this  mag- 
nificent production.  In  despite  of  its  minuteness, 
it  is  also  very  barren  of  prophetic  matter  not  other- 
wise and  more  consistently  embraced  in  chaps,  vii. 
and  viii.,  along  with  chap.  xii.  It  is  sadly  jejune 
and  unedifying  in  comparison  with  the  undisputed 
Danielle  prophecies,  in  that  it  deals  with  the  affairs 
and  doings  of  a  few  petty  kings,  queens  and  insur- 
rections, which  for  the  most  part  have  very  little 
connection  with  the  grand  current  either  of  history 
or  prophecy.  That  it  refers  to  the  Ptolemies  and  the 
Seleucidse,  particularly  to  the  Seleucid  despot,  Anti- 
ochus  Epiphanes,  there  can  be  no  doubt;  but  the 
appearances  are  as  if  written  by  some  one  applying 
the  prophecies  after  the  events,  and  as  if  meant  to 
be  nothing  more  than  a  paraphrastico-prophetic  ap- 
plication of  the  true  Danielle  predictions.  Such  is  a 
fair  statement  of  the  facts  and  arguments  in  the  case. 

For  my  own  part,  I  have  very  little  sympathy 
with  that  spirit  which  is  for  ever  at  work  to  revise, 
correct  and  expurgate  the  text  of  what  the  Church 


262  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

has  for  so  many,  many  ages  received  and  treated  as 
part  of  her  most  sacred  Books.  I  believe  that  much 
that  is  done  in  this  line  is  presamj)tiious,  uncalled- 
for  and  in  the  highest  degree  irreverent.  In  most 
instances  it  is  in  the  interest  of  some  false  doctrine, 
the  skeptical  pride  and  selfishness  of  the  human  heart 
seeking  to  make  God's  word  square  with  the  philos- 
ophies and  notions  of  depraved  human  thinking. 
Biblical  criticism  has  its  place,  and  needs  to  be  dili- 
gently cultivated.  It  may  also  now  and  then  serve 
to  set  the  Church  right  on  some  particulars  evi- 
dently different  from  what  many  may  have  rested 
in  as  settled.  Nor  should  we  ever  fail  to  be  con- 
cerned to  have  a  pure  text  in  those  Books  which  we 
hold  so  sacred,  and  correct  readings  of  that  text.  We 
cannot  be  safe  in  matters  of  our  faith  without  it. 
But  the  danger  is  rather  not  to  receive  too  much, 
but  to  receive  too  little,  and  to  quibble  and  tinker 
where  there  is  no  real  occasion  for  it.  This  super- 
exaltation  of  what  men  call  ^'  the  critical  sense  " — 
the  claim  of  a  sort  of  intuitive  perception  of  what 
is  Bible  and  what  is  not  which  would  rule  out  or 
rule  in  at  its  own  sovereign  pleasure,  as  if  it  could 
not  be  mistaken — is  not  what  we  need  for  these  days 
of  unfaith.  It  is  only  properly  dealt  with  when 
rebuked  and  resisted  as  impious  and  absurd. 

A  few  years  ago  there  was  a  short  poem  found  on 
a  blank  leaf  of  an  early  copy  of  the  works  of  John 
Milton  in  the  British  Museum.  It  was  apparently 
signed  '^J.  M.'^  It  was  published  as  perhaps  the 
j)ro(luction   of  Milton,  and  a  thousand  critics  set  to 


THE  PICTURE  FILLED   IN.  263 

work  to  decide  the  question  of  its  authorship. 
Learned  men  and  adepts  pronounced  it  a  genuine 
Miltonic  composition,  and  agreed  that  Milton  only 
could  have  woven  "  the  subtle  melody "  of  its  lines. 
Others,  equally  wise  and  experienced,  declared  it 
mere  rubbish,  and  that  Milton  never  could  have 
written  it  except  "  in  his  dotage.^'  And  so  the  con- 
troversy went  on,  and  still  remains,  with  no  prospect 
that  criticism  or  all  the  "  critical  sense  "  in  the  world 
will  ever  be  able  to  settle  whether  Milton  wrote  it 
or  not.  How  great,  therefore,  are  the  presumption 
and  conceit  of  a  certain  school  of  philologists,  critics 
and  literary  experts  who  claim  to  be  able  to  tell,  by 
intuition  or  internal  evidence  alone,  just  what  chap- 
ters and  verses  of  each  particular  writer  in  the  Scrip- 
tures are  from  him,  and  what  not  !  Wearily  picking 
up  out  of  grammars  and  vocabularies  the  dried  bits 
of  dead  languages,  and  utterly  unable  to  pronounce 
a  word  of  them  as  the  people  who  spoke  them,  they 
fancy  they  can  feel  and  detect  all  variations  of  con- 
struction, phrase  or  idea  pertaining  or  not  pertaining  to 
each  author,  and  hence  take  upon  themselves  to  expur- 
gate the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  to  cast  out  this  or  the 
other  Book  or  passage  from  the  Canon  on  no  other 
ground  than  that  so  their  "  critical  sense "  decides. 
And  yet  here  was  a  poem  in  the  plain  English 
which  we  all  speak — a  poem  written  in  London,  in 
the  time  of  John  Milton — which  Englishmen,  coun- 
trymen of  Milton,  his  fellow-townsmen,  familiar  with 
every  line  he  ever  wrote,  critics,  experts,  themselves 
poets,  cannot  tell  whether  it  is  John  ^lilton's  or  not! 


264  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

Away  with  such  pretensions  whereby  to  revise  and 
reconstruct  our  sacred  Books,  which  have  stood  the 
tests  of  so  many  ages !  If  the  best  "critical  sense '^ 
of  the  best  English  experts  cannot  settle  from  in- 
ternal evidence  whether  a  poem  in  the  tongue  which 
they  have  known  from  their  cradles  is  Milton's  or 
not,  is  it  not  worse  than  ridiculous — ^yea,  wicked — 
for  men  to  presume  in  this  way  to  decide  that  this 
paragraph  or  that  in  any  given  Book  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture does  not  belong  to  it?  Let  us  ever  beware  of 
being  led  by  such  a  manner  of  dealing  with  what 
we  have  every  reason  to  honor  and  respect  as  the 
inspired  record  of  God's  word. 

In  the  case  before  us  but  little  difference  would  be 
made  in  the  actual  contents  of  these  wonderful  reve- 
lations whether  we  accept  or  omit  the  particular  sec- 
tions to  which  reference  has  been  made.  The  only 
questions  really  dependent  on  the  decision  one  way 
or  the  other  are :  (1)  Whether  Daniel  lived  to  the 
third  year  of  Cyrus,  or  only  to  the  first  year;  (2) 
whether  this  vision  by  the  Hiddekel  was  at  the  ter- 
mination of  the  season  of  penitential  devotion  re- 
ferred to  in  chapter  ix.  3,  4,  or  at  the  termination  of 
another  such  a  period  about  four  years  later;  (3) 
whether  the  Magian  seven-months'  usurper,  the 
pseudo-Smerdis,  is  to  be  rated  in  the  prophetic 
list  of  Persian  kings  or  not;  and  (4)  whether  all 
the  minute  details  touching  the  period  of  the  Mac- 
cabees, or  only  the  main  outlines,  were  included  in 
the  original  Danielic  predictions.  But  for  the  possi- 
bility of  letting  go  what,  after  all,  may  be  a  genuine 


THE  PICTURE  FILLED   IN.  265 

part  of  the  Book  of  "  Daniel  the  prophet,"  and  for 
the  ill  use  that  might  be  made  of  such  a  precedent, 
it  would  not  involve  much  either  way  to  allow  that 
there  has  here  been  some  taking  into  the  text  of  what 
was  not  in  it  as  it  came  from  Daniel's  pen.  Whether 
we  omit  or  retain  the  sections  designated,  the  sublimer 
contents  and  entire  substance  of  this  Book  remain  un- 
touched. 

The  prophet  here  tells  of  a  long  and  devout  season 
of  fasting  and  prayer  to  which  he  had  given  himself. 
He  informs  us  that  it  lasted  ^'  three  full  weeks ;"  that 
^'  in  those  days ''  he  ate  no  pleasant  bread,  neither  did 
flesh  or  wine  come  into  his  mouth,  nor  did  he  at  all 
anoint  himself  as  at  other  times ;  and  that  at  the  end 
of  these  three  weeks,  in  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  the 
first  month,  he  w^as  by  the  side  of  the  great  river 
Hiddekel,  now  known  as  the  Tigris.  Whether  he 
had  removed  his  residence  from  the  court  to  this 
place,  or  whether  he  had  selected  it  only  as  a  quiet 
retreat  for  these  special  devotions,  cannot  be  fully  de- 
termined from  the  record.  The  probabilities  are  that 
he  came  hither  for  the  great  penitential  observances  of 
which  he  speaks.  At  least,  he  was  by  the  side  of  the 
great  river,  far  away  from  the  scenes  of  court-life,  when 
the  three  weeks  of  his  devout  fastings  terminated. 

Lifting  up  his  eyes,  he  was  greeted  with  an  over- 
powering vision.  Before  him  stood  a  being  in  man's 
form,  clothed  in  linen  and  girded  with  gold.  His 
body  was  like  the  beryl — like  the  bluish-green,  pris- 
matic light.  His  face  was  as  the  appearance  of  light- 
ning, insufferably  bright.     His  eyes  were  as  burning 


266  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

flame.  His  arms  and  his  feet  were  like  burnished 
brass,  and  the  voice  of  his  words  had  the  volume  and 
majesty  of  the  shoutings  of  a  multitude.  The  de- 
scription answers  so  fully  to  the  appearance  of  the 
Saviour  to  John  in  the  first  vision  of  the  Apocalypse 
that  many  think  it  was  the  Son  of  God  himself  who 
here  manifested  himself  to  the  prophet.  It  also  re- 
sembles the  apparition  of  Christ  to  Saul  of  Tarsus,  in 
that  only  Daniel  saw  the  vision,  while  others  about 
him  did  not  see  it,  though  filled  with  dread  and  terror 
on  account  of  it,  so  that  they  fled  and  hid  themselves, 
leaving  the  prophet  entirely  alone.  Weak  as  he  was 
from  his  long  fast,  and  anticipating  nothing  of  the 
sort,  Daniel  was  completely  overwhelmed  by  the  sud- 
denness and  transcendent  glory  of  the  vision.  There 
remained  no  more  strength  in  him.  All  the  excel- 
lences of  his  personal  appearance  collapsed,  and  he 
sank  into  a  state  next  thing  to  death. 

This  shows  bow  merciful  it  is  in  God  to  veil  over 
the  spiritual  world  from  our  fleshly  sight.  Were  He 
to  lift  that  veil,  it  would  be  impossible  for  flesh  and 
blood  to  sustain  itself  under  the  '^  weight  of  glory." 
The  presence  of  this  apparition  threw  Daniel  into  the 
condition  almost  that  of  one  dead.  He  heard  the 
words  of  the  glorious  Being  before  him,  but  he  was 
in  a  swoon,  "  in  a  deep  sleep,"  lying  with  his  face  to 
the  ground.  Nor  could  he  rise  till  touched  by  the 
strengthening  hand  of  iho^  heavenly  visitor  and  told 
to  stand  upright.  And  even  when  he  regained  his 
feet,  he  shook  with  dread  and  "stood  trembling." 
A¥e  sometimes  wish  that  we  could  have  some  of  the 


THE  PICTURE  FILLED  IN.  267 

experiences  of  the  prophets  in  seeing  the  visions  they 
saw  and  recorded,  but  it  is  because  we  fail  to  note 
tlirough  what  sufferings  of  soul  and  body  these  reve- 
*  lations  have  come  out  througli  them.  We  think  of 
the  glory  of  what  they  saw  and  heard  and  felt,  but 
overlook  the  terrific  jarrings  of  all  the  framework 
of  their  earthly  nature  which  w^ere  the  price  of  these 
revelations.  It  is  a  mercy  that  we  may  profit  by 
them  without  the  dreadful  experiences  which  attend- 
ed the  giving  of  them.  Think  how  Moses  did  "fear 
and  quake  -/^  how  Jacob  at  Bethel  was  thrilled  and 
terrified  at  the  realization  of  what  had  occurred  to 
him  there ;  how  Isaiah  was  unmanned  and  made  to 
cry  out  as  one  about  to  sink  into  annihilation  at  the 
glory  he  describes;  how  Paul  was  blinded,  sickened 
and  disabled  by  Christ's  appearance  unto  him;  how 
John  fell  down  as  dead  at  the  voice  and  apparition 
which  greeted  him  at  the  beginning  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse; and  through  what  dreadful  horrors  and  dis- 
turbances of  body,  soul  and  spirit  these  wonders  and 
revelations  were  vouchsafed  through  these  sublimely- 
favored  men !  Daniel  would  perhaps  have  ceased 
to  live  to  tell  us  of  this  vision  had  not  a  heavenly 
hand  revived  and  strengthened  him  against  the  over- 
whelming terribleness  of  what  he  beheld.  And 
rather  than  envy  these  singularly-favored  men,  we 
should  be  moved  to  thank  God  that  He  has  given  to 
us  the  full  benefit  of  these  marvellous  disclosures 
without  having  to  experience  the  awfulness  which 
the  irivino;  of  them  wrouo^ht  in  those  throuirh  whom 
they  came. 


268  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

The  object  of  this  vision  was  to  reveal  to  Daniel 
a  still  fuller  account  of  the  fortunes  of  his  people  "  in 
the  latter  days ;"  that  is,  in  the  mysterious  future,  ex- 
tending down  to  the  end  of  this  present  world.  And 
to  this  revelation  the  whole  remaining  part  of  this 
Book  is  devoted. 

If  it  was  "  in  the  third  year  of  Cyrus,"  as  stated 
in  the  superscription  to  this  tenth  chapter,  that  Dan- 
iel had  this  vision,  two  years  had  already  passed  since 
the  decree  permitting  the  Jews  to  return  to  rebuild 
their  temple.  In  answer  to  the  question  why  Daniel 
did  not  go  up  with  his  fellow-countrymen,  it  is  usu- 
ally replied  that  he  was  then  very  old;  that  the  re- 
turn yet  involved  much  to  be  done  in  order  to  final 
success,  for  which  his  presence  in  Persia  was  more 
necessary  than  his  presence  in  Jerusalem ;  and  that  he 
was  in  place  and  high  consideration  as  an  officer  and 
councillor  of  state,  and  could  be  of  much  more  service 
in  watching  and  directing  the  affixirs  of  the  govern- 
ment under  whose  protection  his  brethren  were  re- 
turning than  by  leaving  his  place  to  accompany  them. 
He  was,  at  all  events,  most  profoundly  and  devoutly 
concerned  about  the  future  of  his  people,  and  it  was 
in  answer  to  these  anxieties  that  this  glorious  appa- 
rition came. 

In  explaining  to  Daniel  the  object  of  his  coming 
this  heavenly  messenger  proceeds  to  make  those  re- 
markable statements  in  regard  to  the  offices  and  do- 
ings of  the  ano;els.  Whether  we  omit  or  retain  what 
is  given  of  the  conflicts  among  these  spiritual  orders 
in   the  latter  part  of  the  chapter,  the  same  view  of 


THE  PICTURE  FILLED  IN.  269 

things  is  nevertheless  implied  in  what  this  angel  tells 
of  his  detention  in  coming  to  Daniel.  Yer.  13.  It 
is  ever  true  that  the  histories  of  this  world  always 
have  a  background  of  spiritual  agencies.  The  Scrip- 
tures everywhere  represent  the  angels  as  largely  par- 
ticipating in  the  divine  government  of  the  world  and 
in  the  whole  ongoing  of  earthly  affairs.  There  are 
such  things  as  guardian  angels,  who  are  more  con- 
cerned in  what  comes  to  pass  than  any  of  us  suspect. 
And  among  these  active  unseen  potencies  there  are 
both  good  and  bad,  often  in  conflict  with  each  other. 
We  are  here  shown  individual  angels  standing  at  the 
head  of  individual  kingdoms,  and  in  opposition  to 
them,  at  the  head  of  the  Israelitish  theocracy,  Michael, 
one  of  the  first  or  highest  princes.  In  alliance  with 
him,  and  opposed  to  the  spirits  of  the  world,  there  is 
another  angel,  whom  a  certain  writer  designates  as 
the  good  spirit  of  the  Gentile  world,  whose  object  is 
to  promote  the  realization  of  God's  plan  of  salvation 
among  the  Gentiles.  It  was  natural  that  this  angel 
should  be  sent  to  reveal  to  Daniel  the  fate  which  the 
powers  of  the  world  were  preparing  for  the  people  of 
God  ;  and  he  here  lets  the  prophet  catch  a  glimpse 
of  the  invisible  struggles  between  the  angelic  princes 
as  to  who  should  exert  the  determining  influence  on 
the  worldly  monarch — whether  the  God-opposed  spirit 
of  this  world,  or  the  good  spirit  whose  aim  it  is  to 
further  ih^  interests  of  God's  kingdom. 

We  are  wont  to  speak  in  a  spiritualizing  way  of  a 
struggle  between  the  good  and  evil  principles  in  man, 
but  Holv  Scripture  teaches  us  to  regard  the  matter  as 


270  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

a  substantial  reality.  (See  1  Sam.  xvi.  13-15  ;  1  Kings 
xxii.  22.)  The  Satanic  influences,  of  which  we  have 
more  particular  knowledge  through  the  language  of 
Jesus  and  His  apostles,  are  not  essentially  different 
from  what  is  here  told.  The  glorious  angel  who  ap- 
pears to  Daniel  had  a  struggle  of  three  weeks  with 
the  evil  angel  at  the  head  of  the  Persian  monarchy, 
and  only  by  Michael's  help  overcame  him  and  gained 
superior  influence  over  the  Persian  king.  He  also 
had  on  hand  a  further  struggle  of  the  same  kind  wnth 
the  same  prince-angel  of  Persia.  After  that  h-e  was 
to  encounter  the  prince-angel  of  Grecia,  in  which  no 
great  success,  even  with  MichaeFs  help,  was  fore- 
shadowed. The  intimation  was  in  nthis  way  given 
that  the  Persian  kings  would  be  favorable  to  Israel, 
and  perhaps  also  the  Greeks,  but  that  then  would 
come  an  adverse  change.  (See  Auberlen  on  Daniel 
and  St.  John,  pp.  56-58.) 

The  angel  then  proceeds  (in  chap.  xi.  2-4)  to  state 
the  course  of  things  in  its  outward  manifestations. 
From  the  time  Daniel  had  this  vision  four  kings 
were  yet  to  hold  dominion  in  Persia  prior  to  the  be- 
ginning of  the  transfer  of  power,  when  adversities 
were  again  to  come.  If  it  was  in  the  third  year  of 
Cyrus  that  Daniel  received  this  revelation,  the  three 
Persian  rulers  next  succeeding  him,  as  enumerated 
in  Ezra  iv.,  are — (1)  "  Ahasuerus,"  the  son  of  Cyrus, 
who  in  secular  history  is  called  Cambyses ;  (2)  '^Ar- 
taxerxes  " — not  the  one  mentioned  by  Nehemiah,  but 
the  Magian  usurper,  the  pseudo-Smerdis,  who  in  the 
absence  of  Cambyses  seized  the  government,  but  came 


THE  PICTURE  FILLET)  IN.  271 

to  a  disgraceful  end  after  a  reign  of  but  seven  months; 
(3)  Darius  Hystaspes,  son  of  Cambyses,  the  same  from 
whom,  in  the  twentieth  year  of  his  reign,  came  the 
commission  to  Nehemiah  for  the  rebuilding  of  Jeru- 
salem. In  case  the  statement  in  the  first  verse  of  the 
tenth  chapter  be  taken  as  a  later  addition,  the  time  of 
this  vision  would  date  in  the  first  year  of  Darius  the 
Mede,  the  Astyages  of  profane  history ;  and  thus  the 
brief  usurpation  of  the  pretended  Smerdis  would  drop 
out  of  the  count  of  the  proper  kings  of  Persia ;  which 
would  seem  to  be  the  most  reasonable.  The  succes- 
sion would  then  stand— (1)  Cyrus,  (2)  Cambyses,  (3) 
Darius  Hystaspes.  Here,  then,  in  either  way  of  reck- 
onin,!^,  we  have  the  three  kings  whom  the  angel  said 
would  yet  stand  up  in  Persia  subsequent  to  the  time 
at  which  Daniel  had  this  vision. 

But  a  fourth  is  referred  to  and  specially  singled 
out  from  the  rest  as  pre-eminently  rich,  and  as  he 
who  should  make  a  most  noted  attempt  at  the  sub- 
jugation of  Greece.  The  word  is,  "And  the  fourth 
shall  be  far  richer  than  they  all  :  and  by  his  strength 
through  his  riches  he  shall  stir  up  all  against  the 
realm  of  Grecia."  It  is  agreed  that  this  can  refer 
to  none  other  than  Xerxes,  son  of  Darius  Hystaspes, 
who  was  the  fourth  Persian  emperor  after  Darius 
the  Mede,  dropping  out  the  pseudo-Smerdian  usur- 
pation, and  the  fourth  from  Cyrus,  counting  the 
usurper  in. 

Xerxes,  who  was  the  husband  of  Queen  Esther, 
was  by  far  the  richest  of  all  the  Persian  kings.  Jus- 
tin says  of  him  that  when   his  armies  were  swelled 


272  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

in  numbers  sufficient  to  drink  rivers  dry  his  wealth 
still  remained  unexhausted.  In  this  respect  he,  and 
only  he,  fits  to  the  prophecy.  And  when  it  is  fur- 
ther said  of  this  fourth  king,  ''  By  his  strength 
through  his  riches  he  shall  stir  up  all  against  the 
realm  of  Grecia,"  we  look  in  vain  for  any  other 
Persian  emperor  to  whom  it  will  apply,  whilst  in 
Xerxes  all  was  fulfilled  to  the  letter.  His  father, 
Darius  Hystaspes,  had  proudly  styled  himself  ^'King 
of  the  Continent,"  but  the  more  ambitious  son  as- 
pired to  be  King  of  the  World.  In  a  council  of  his 
government  it  was  resolved  ^' to  march  throughout 
all  Europe,  and  reduce  the  whole  earth  under  one 
empire."  Four  entire  years  (three  after  the  conquest 
of  Egypt)  were  consumed  in  the  preparations  for 
this  expedition.  Nations  were  laid  under  contri- 
bution, and  a  force  of  infantry,  cavalry,  charioteers, 
ships  of  war  and  transports  by  land  and  sea  was 
gathered  and  equipped  which  was  the  most  enormous 
ever  moved  in  one  body  by  mortal  man.  Perhaps 
not  less  than  five  millions  of  men  were  directly  in- 
cluded in  this  tremendous  expedition,  all  bought  up 
by  the  riches  of  the  king  and  set  in  motion  against 
Greece,  and  thence  to  press  their  conquests  over 
the  whole  European  world.  The  battles  of  Ther- 
mopylae, Marathon  and  Salamis  were  the  result,  in 
which  a  stunning  blow  was  inflicted  on  Persia  from 
which  it  began  to  sink  to  its  final  fall. 

In  so  far,  then,  the  words  of  i\\Q  angel  were 
most  accurately  fulfilled,  the  climax  of  Persian  do- 
minion  reached,  and  a  decadence  of  it  commenced. 


THE  PICTURE  FILLED  IN.  273 

beyond   which    the   prophecy   does   not   specially  fol- 
low it. 

Leaving  off  the  Persian  history  with  Xerxes,  the 
angel  at  the  same  time  spoke  of  the  rising  of  an- 
other king,  who  ''  should  rule  with  great  dominion, 
and  do  according  to  his  will.'^  It  is  not  said  where 
he  would  rise  or  whence  he  should  come;  only  that 
he  was  to  be  some  other  than  a  Persian  king.  But 
as  he  had  just  spoken  of  a  great  Persian  campaign 
against  Greece,  the  result  of  which  is  not  given  save 
that  there  the  thread  of  Persian  history  is  dropped, 
the  natural  suggestion  is  that  we  are  to  look  toward 
Greece  for  this  new  and  mighty  conqueror.  And 
there,  indeed,  we  find  him  in  the  person  of  Alexan- 
der the  Great,  who  in  resentment  of  the  invasion 
of  Xerxes,  though  long  after,  ''  overran  the  Persian 
empire  from  the  Hellespont  to  the  Indus,  and  from 
the  Oasis  of  Amnion  to  the  deserts  beyond  the  Jax- 
artes.^'  On  this  point  also  agreement  is  general. 
The  prophecy  fits  "  the  great  Emathian  conqueror," 
and  none  other.  "  When  he  shall  stand  up,"  said 
the  angel,  ''  his  kingdom  shall  be  broken ;"  and  so 
the  mighty  Macedonian  dominion  was  suddenly  shat- 
tered by  the  early  death  of  Alexander  when  in  the 
very  height  of  his  triumphs.  His  empire  was  sev- 
ered to  the  four  winds,  being  divided  into  four  mon- 
archies. It  did  not  go  to  his  posterity,  but  to  four 
of  his  generals,  whose  wars  and  contentions  about 
it  both  limited  and  weakened  it,  so  that  it  was  no 
longer  ^'  according  to  his  dominion."  Nor  was  it  to 
abide  even  in  these  four  divisions.     The   angel  said 

18 


274  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

it  would  be  plucked  up  and  become  the  possession 
of  still  others ;  which  was  also  finally  fulfilled  in 
the  aggressions  and  conquests  of  the  Romans.  It  is 
really  marvellous  to  see  with  what  accuracy  history 
has  filled  out  the  sketch  of  events  which  was  given 
to  Daniel  at  the  beginning,  w^hen  it  was  utterly 
impossible  for  any  human  foresight  or  calculation  to 
antici]")ate  what  w^as  to  come. 

Having  thus,  by  a  few  masterly  strokes,  brought 
down  the  thread  of  history  to  the  times  of  the  di- 
vided form  of  the  Macedonian  empire,  the  narrative 
drops  off  into  those  minute  particularizations  re- 
specting "  the  king  of  the  south  '^  and  "  the  king  of 
the  north,''  their  intrigues,  wars  and  abominations, 
at  which  so  many  Biblical  critics  have  taken  offence, 
and  out  of  which  expositors  have  been  able  to  make 
so  little.  These  references  denote  the  successive  sov- 
ereigns of  the  two  monarchies  north  and  south  of 
the  Holy  Land — that  is,  Syria  and  Egypt — between 
which,  for  scores  on  scores  of  years,  the  Jew^s  were 
made  to  suffer  as  between  two  millstones. 

"The  king  of  the  south"  (ver.  5)  is  Ptolemy 
Lagus  of  Egypt.  The  prince  who  becomes  strong- 
above  him,  with  great  dominion,  is  Seleucus  Nicator, 
one  of  Ptolemy's  satraps,  who  separates  to  himself 
and  becomes  "  the  king  of  the  north."  The  descend- 
ants of  these  and  their  strifes  are  treated  of  in  the 
Books  of  the  Maccabees,  and  make"  up  the  chief 
story  as  here  given.  In  the  course  of  the  narrative 
it  is  not  always  the  same  individual  monarch  who 
is  called  ''the  king  of  the  north"  or  "the  king  of 


THE  PICTURE  EI L LED  IN.  275 

the  south,"  but  those  who  happen  to  be  in  power  at 
the  time  in  Syria  or  in  Egypt.  These  two  divisions 
of  the  Macedonian  empire  were  always  more  or  less 
at  variance  and  war  for  the  whole  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  of  their  existence.  They  formed  com- 
pacts and  made  intermarriages,  but  always  to  be 
broken  and  to  fail  in  the  end;  the  Jews  all  the 
while  being  disadvantaged,  robbed,  and  often  overrun 
by  one  or  the  other,  and  greatly  oppressed  and 
destroyed,  till  it  came  to  the  infamous  reign  of  An- 
tioehus  Epiphanes,  whose  history  and  doings  I  gave 
on  another  occasion. 

But  with   all   the  tribulations  thus  to  come  upon 
the  prophet's  people  in  those  evil  times,  God  was  to 
be  at  the   helm,   neither  suifering  them  to  be  over- 
whelmed nor  allowing  their  afflictions  to  be  without 
profit.       For    their    sins,    apostasies    and    infidelities 
the  hand  of  judgment  was  to  be  lifted  against  them. 
Oppressors  were  to  rule  over  them;   flatterers   were 
to  beguile  and  deceive  them ;  plunderers  were  to  rob 
them  ;  and  the  godless  were  to  cast  down  their  priests, 
profane  their  temple,  stop  their  sacrifices,  carry  away 
their  children  into  slavery  and  spoil  them  in  every 
violent  manner.     Many  of  themselves  were  to  prove 
traitors  to  their  holy  covenant,  sell  holy  things  for  a 
price  and  join  with  the  hosts  of  the  adversary  against 
their  own  flesh  and  blood.     And  multitudes  were  to 
be  mowed  down  with  the  sword,  burned  with  fire  or 
driven   to   the   wilds   in   untold    wretchedness.       But 
still  God's  eye  w^as  to  be  over  them,  and  all  was  to 
be   overruled    for   good.      The    wickednesses    of  the 


276  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

many  were  to  make  others  the  better.  The  fires 
were  to  purge  and  brighten  the  faitliful  and  true, 
as  well  as  to  torture  and  consume  the  transgressors. 
Some  were  still  to  know  their  God,  and  be  made 
strong  and  do  exploits.  The  abounding  faithless- 
ness was  to  call  forth  better  instruction,  that  the 
truth  might  not  utterly  die  out.  Through  all  the 
dark  night  of  their  tribulations  there  were  promises 
and  hope  of  a  better  morning.  When  God  lets  the 
wicked  have  their  way,  it  is  that  He  may  destroy 
them  utterly ;  but  when  He  chastises  His  people,  it 
is  to  purify  and  redeem  them. 

Nor  are  God's  chosen  ones  alone  in  their  conflicts 
with  the  ills  and  trials  of  time.  The  Eternal  Father 
maketh  angels  His  ministers  to  the  heirs  of  salvation. 
In  loving  sympathy  and  untiring  patience  celestial 
princes  stand  at  the  seats  of  earthly  power,  and  watch 
and  guard,  and  exert  their  mysterious  agencies  to 
moderate  and  shape  the  counsels  of  the  mighty  and 
to  hinder  and  thwart  the  ill  thoughts  of  oppressors, 
that  Jehovah's  faithful  ones  may  profit  by  their  en- 
deavors. With  the  evil  principalities  they  struggle, 
and  press  their  way  to  bring  messages  of  comfort, 
assurance  and  hope  to  penitent  suppliants,  to  show 
the  superior  greatness  and  glory  of  our  God,  to 
throw  light  upon  the  scene  of  gloom  and  to  herald 
a  blessed  outcome  to  the  dutiful  and  true.  The 
chariots  of  the  Lord  are  thousands  of  thousands, 
even  thousands  of  angels,  and  as  the  mountains  are 
round  about  Jerusalem,  so  these  are  camped  round 
about  them  that  fear  God.      Michael,   the  one  like 


THE  PICTURE  FILLED  IN.  277 

God,  with  all  the  holy  prmces  of  the  invisible  world, 
is  on  the  side  of  the  good,  and  stands  for  the  chil- 
dren of  the  covenant,  and  exerts  the  mightier  activity 
as  the  tide  of  trouble  comes  to  its  flood. 

And  how  transient,  at  best,  are  the  riches,  power  and 
glory  of  the  wicked!  All  the  wealth  and  greatness, 
pomp  and  grandeur,  with  which  Xerxes  went  forth 
against  Greece,  how  did  it  melt  away  before  the  en- 
ergy of  a  few  brave  patriots  of  the  land  of  freemen  ! 
How  soon  were  all  his  armed  myriads  brought  to 
naught !  And  all  those  astounding  triumphs  v  f  Al- 
exander, what  were  they?  what  did  they  profit 
him?  How  suddenly  they  disappeared  in  the  driv- 
elling strifes  of  those  who  came  after  him  !  Breth- 
ren,  there  is  no  abiding  riches  but  riches  toward  God 
— the  riches  of  faith,  obedience  and  humble  trust  in 
Him.  '^All  flesh  is  as  grass,  and  all  the  glory  of 
man  as  the  flow^er  of  grass.  The  grass  withereth, 
and  the  flower  thereof  falleth  away:  but  the  word 
of  the  Lord  endureth  for  ever."  Whosoever  is  built 
upon  that  Word  is  planted  on  everlasting  security. 
His  fortune  is  immortal.  His  triumph  is  for  eter- 
nity. 

"  Pilgrim  of  earth,  wlio  art  journeying  to  heaven  ! 
Heir  of  eternal  life !  child  of  the  day  ! 
Cared  for,  watched  over,  beloved  and  forgiven ! 
Art  thou  discouraged  because  of  the  way  ? 

**  Weary  and  thirsty,  no  water-brook  near  thee, 

Press  onward,  nor  faint  at  the  length  of  the  way  ; 
The  God  of  thy  life  will  assuredly  hear  thee  ; 
He  will  provide  thee  thy  strength  for  the  day. 


278  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

"  Break  through  the  brambles  and  briers  that  obstruct  thee, 
Dread  not  the  gloom  and  the  blackness  of  night ; 
Lean  on  the  Hand  that  will  safely  conduct  thee, 
Trust  to  His  eye  to  whom  darkness  is  light, 

"  Be  trustful,  be  steadfast,  whatever  betide  thee, 
Only  one  thing  do  thou  ask  of  the  Lord — 
Grace  to  go  forward  wherever  He  guide  thee, 
Simply  believing  the  truth  of  His  word." 


LECTURE   THIRTEENTH. 

The  Reign  of  the  Antichrist;   or,  The 
Wilful  King. 

Daniel  11:36-45. 

AN  able  living  writer  on  this  Book  of  Daniel  says: 
We  Christians  look  for  an  Antichrist  yet  to  come. 
Our  Lord  forewarned  of  him  and  his  deceivableness. 
St.  Paul  describes  such  an  one  as  Daniel  speaks  of. 
Isaiah  had  before  foretold  of  him  and  his  destruction. 
Good  and  evil  have  grown  together  all  through  this 
workFs  history — all  good  foreshadowing  and  concen- 
trating in  Him  and  His  kingdom  who  alone  is  good, 
and  all  evil,  having  its  diverse  counterparts  in  the 
more  signal  manifestations  of  evil,  culminating  at 
last  in  the  highest  antagonism  to  good  and  God  in 
the  person  and  dominion  of  the  Antichrist.  Even 
apart  from  revelation,  it  is,  in  itself,  in  conformity 
with  human  nature  and  the  laws  of  things  that,  as 
good  intensifies  to  a  grand  consummation  of  good,  so 
will  evil  also  intensify  to  a  grand  consummation  of 
evil.  (See  Pusey^s  Lectures,  pp.  91,  92.)  The  world 
is  made  up  of  light  and  shadow,  the  one  always  ac- 
companying the  other;  and  as  the  light  increases  the 
shadows  deepen  ;  till,  when  the  King  of  glory  comes 
to  crown  and  establish  the  good.  He  will  be  confront- 

279 


280  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

ed  with  the  king  and  head  of  all  wickedness,  wrought 
up  to  the  summit  of  lawlessness  and  blasphemy  at 
which  its  doom  shall  come. 

Hence  wrote  the  venerable  apostle  John :  "  Little 
children,  it  is  the  last  time:  and  as  ye  have  .heard  that 
Antichrist  shall  come,  even  now  are  there  many  anti- 
christs; whereby  we  know  it  is  the  last  time.  He  is 
Antichrist  that  denieth  the  Father  and  the  Son.  .  .  . 
Every  spirit  that  confesseth  not  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
come  in  the  flesh  is  not  of  God :  and  this  is  that 
spirit  of  Antichrist  whereof  ye  have  heard  that  it 
should  come ;  and  even  now  already  it  is  in  the 
world.  .  .  .  For  many  deceivers  are  entered  into  the 
world  who  confess  not  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in 
the  flesh.  This  is  a  deceiver  and  an  antichrist.''  1 
John  ii.  18,  22;  iv.  3;  2  John  7. 

Hence  also  Paul  wrote  to  the  Thessalonians  :  "  Let 
no  man  deceive  you  by  any  means ;  for  that  day  [of 
Christ]  shall  not  come,  except  there  come  a  falling 
away  first,  and  that  man  of  sin  be  revealed,  the 
son  of  perdition,  who  exalteth  and  opposeth  himself 
above  all  that  is  called  God,  or  that  is  worshipped  ; 
so  that  he  as  (Jod  sitteth  in  the  temple  of  God,  show- 
ing himself  that  he  is  God.  Remember  ye  not  that 
when  I  was  yet  with  you  I  told  you  these  things? 
And  now  ye  know  what  with  hoi  deth  that  he  might 
be  revealed  in  his  time.  For  the  mystery  of  iniquity 
doth  already  work  ;  only  He  who  now  letteth  [hin- 
dereth]  will  let  [hinder]  until  He  [the  Hinderer]  be 
taken  out  of  the  way  ;  and  then  shall  that  Wicked 
be  revealed,  whom  the  Lord  shall  consume  with  the 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  ANTICHRIST.  281 

spirit  of  His  mouth,  and  shall  destroy  with  the 
brightness  [epiphany,  manifestation]  of  His  coming 
\_p)arousia,  presence]  ;  even  him  -[the  Wicked  One] 
whose  coming  is  after  the  working  of  Satan  with  all 
power  and  signs  and  lying  wonders,  and  with  all 
deceivableness  of  unrighteousness  in  them  that  per- 
ish; because  they  received  not  the  love  of  the  truth 
that  they  might  be  saved."  2  Thess.  ii.  3-12. 

A  still  more  circumstantial  account  of  this  final 
monster  is  given  in  the  Apocalypse,  where  John,  speak- 
ing of  the  last  things  to  take  place  in  this  world, 
says  :  "  I  saw  a  beast  rise  up  out  of  the  sea,  having 
seven  heads  and  ten  horns,  and  upon  his  horns  ten 
crowns,  and  upon  his  heads  the  name  of  blasphemy. 
And  the  dragon  [that  old  serpent,  called  the  Devil] 
gave  him  his  power,  and  his  seat,  and  great  authority. 
And  all  the  world  wondered  after  the  beast.  And 
they  worshipped  the  dragon  which  gave  power  unto 
the  beast,  and  they  w^orshipped  the  beast,  saying. 
Who  is  like  unto  the  beast?  Who  is  able  to  make 
war  with  him  ?  And  he  opened  his  mouth  in  blas- 
phemy against  God,  to  blaspheme  His  name,  and 
His  tabernacle,  and  them  that  dwell  in  heaven.  And 
it  was  given  him  to  make  war  with  the  saints,  and 
to  overcome  them  :  and  power  was  given  him  over 
all  kindreds,  and  tongues,  and  nations.  And  all 
that  dwell  upon  the  earth  shall  worship  him,  whose 
names  are  not  written  in  the  book  of  life  of  the 
Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world.  If 
any  man  have  an  ear,  let  him  hear."  With  this 
beast  there  is  also  a  propliet,  "  wlio  doeth  great  won- 


282  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

ders,  so  that  he  maketh  fire  come  down  from 
heaven  on  the  earth  in  the  sight  of  men,  and  de- 
ceiveth  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth  by  means  of 
those  miracles  which  he  had  power  to  do  in  the 
sight  of  the  beast,  saying  to  them  that  dwell  on 
the  earth  that  they  should  make  an  image  to  the 
beast.  And  he  had  power  to  give  life  unto  the 
image  of  the  beast,  that  the  image  of  the  beast 
should  both  speak  and  cause  that  as  many  as  would 
not  worship  the  image  of  the  beast  should  be  killed. 
And  he  caused  all,  both  small  and  great,  rich  and 
poor,  free  and  bond,  to  receive  a  mark  in  their  right 
hand,  or  in  their  foreheads  ;  and  that  no  man  might 
buy  or  sell,"  save  he  that  had  the  mark,  or  the  name 
of  the  beast,  or  the  number  of  his  name."  Rev.  xiii. 
And  what  is  thus  minutely  pictured  in  the  New 
Testament  was  also  very  fully  foreshadowed  in  the 
Old.-  Wherever  we  look  we  find  some  image  and 
fore-intimation  of  this  great  evil  power  running 
parallel  Avith  the  predictions  and  promises  concern- 
ing the  Seed  of  the  woman  and  the  Messiah  of  the 
chosen  people.  In  every  murderous  oppressor  or 
son  of  Belial  that  came,  or  was  to  come,  upon  the 
field  of  history  in  opposition  to  the  children  of  God, 
from  Cain  to  Nimrod,  Pharaoh,  Amalek,  Midian, 
Goliath  and  the  kings  of  Babylon  and  Assyria,  the 
sacred  prophets  ever  saw  anothei-  and  final  consum- 
mation of  them  all,  just  as  they  saw  in  Moses,  Joshua, 
Gideon,  David,  Solomon,  Cyrus  or  others  of  their 
class  the  pre-intimations  and  types  of  that  great,  final, 
consummate  and  eternal  Saviour,  Redeemer  and  Con- 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  ANTICHRIST  283 

queror  of  hell  and  death  set  before  us  in  the  person 
and  administrations  of  the  anointed  and  enthroned 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  "We  accordingly  find  the  whole 
diction  of  their  prophecies  always  taking  on  the 
imagery  and  coloring  of  the  final  outcome,  no  matter 
who  or  what  may  be  the  immediate  subject  in  the 
foreground.  Thus,  the  filthy  dreamers  of  the  last 
times,  who  despise  dominion  and  speak  evil  of  dig- 
nities, and  bring  on  the  terrible  scenes  of  the  final 
judgment,  are  only  Cain  and  Balaam  the  more  fully 
developed  in  their  followers,  and  constitute  the  ul- 
timate body  of  those  sons  of  perdition  included 
already  in  the  prophecies  of  Enoch  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Flood.  (See  Epistle  of  Jude.)  That 
proud  and  oppressive  Lucifer  of  Isa.  xiv.  which  did 
weaken  the  nations  and  made  the  world  to  tremble, 
but  goes  to  the  pit  without  burial,  and  that  '^As- 
syrian "  of  Isa.  XXX.  on  Avhom  falls  the  lighting 
down  of  the  devouring  fire  of  God's  wrath,  even 
*'  the  king "  for  whom  Tophet  is  ordained  of  old, 
are  more  emphatically  and  truly  the  final  Antichrist 
than  any  of  those  types  of  him  found  in  the  ancient 
oppressors  of  Israel.  So  too  the  idol  shepherd  of 
Zech.  xi.,  who,  while  professing  to  protect  and  feed 
God's  flock,  does  but  eat  their  flesh  and  tear  them  in 
pieces  ;  and  so  that  impious  and  lawless  confederation 
of  the  kings  of  the  earth  in  the  second  Psalm  which 
the  Lord  is  to  have  in  derision,  and  dash  to  pieces 
like  pottery  with  a  rod  of  iron,  that  He  may  set  up 
His  King  on  the  holy  hill  of  Zion.  However  any 
of  these  descriptions  may  have  been  realized  in  the 


284  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

past,  they  all,  with  many  more  which  might  be  ad- 
duced, go  forward  in  their  full  height  and  significance 
to  that  heading-up  of  all  evil  in  the  last  period  of 
our  world  known  under  the  ex])ressive  Scriptural 
name  of  the  Antichrist,  who  is  all  other  antichrists 
in  one,  and  who  meets  his  end  by  the  revelation  of 
Jesus  himself. 

Hence  the  firm  belief  of  all  the  Christian  Fathers 
was  that  there  is  yet  to  come  a  development  and  im- 
personation of  Antichristianism  more  dreadful  than 
any  that  has  ever  yet  been  seen  on  earth,  and  which 
shall  be  destroyed  only  in  the  great  day  of  God  Al- 
mighty. Hence  Barnabas  wrote  concerning  "  the  sea- 
son of  the  Wicked  One,"  whom  the  Son  of  God  shall 
''abolish''  when  He  shall  come  to  judge  the  ungodly. 
(Epist.,  15.)  Hence  Irenseus  gave  it  as  part  of  the 
Christian  faith  that  '^  Antichrist,  who,  being  endued 
with  all  the  power  of  the  devil,  shall  come,  not  as  a 
righteous  nor  as  a  legitimate  king  subject  to  God,  but 
an  impious,  unjust  and  lawless  one — as  an  apostate, 
iniquitous  and  murderous — as  a  robber,  concentrating 
in  himself  the  Satanic  apostasy,  setting  aside  idols  to 
persuade  that  he  himself  is  God,  raising  up  himself 
as  the  only  idol,  embodying  the  varied  falsities  of  the 
other  idols,  that  those  who  worship  the  devil  by  means 
of  other  abominations  may  serve  himself  by  this  one 
idol,  lifting  himself  above  all  that  is  called  God,  and 
tyrannously  setting  himself  forth  as  God  in  the  temple 
at  Jerusalem,  and  shall  be  destroyed  by  the  coming  of 
our  Lord."  {Contra  Her.,  5,  cap.  25,  26.)  So  also 
Origen   {Cordy^a  Cela,,  6,    45)   and   Lactantius   (Inst. 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  ANTICHRIST.  285 

Epit.,  71)  and  the  Fathers  in  general.  The  great 
Augustine  says:  ^' He  who  reads,  though  being  half 
asleep,  cannot  fail  to  see  that  the  kingdom  of  Anti- 
clirist  shall  fiercely,  though  for  a  short  time,  assail 
the  Church  before  the  last  judgment  of  God  shall 
introduce  the  eternal  reign  of  the  saints."  {Civ. 
Dei,  torn.  XX.  23.) 

And  this  Antichrist  it  is  who  is  described  to  us  in 
the  passage  now  before  us.  As  early  as  three  hundred 
and  fifty  years  after  the  apostles  Jerome  wrote  of  it, 
and  said  :  "  Our  people  " — the  Christians  of  his  day 
— "consider  all  these  things  to  be  spoken  of  Anti,- 
christ,  who  is  to  come  in  the  last  time."  Luther 
writes :  "  This  prophecy  applies  entirely,  as  all  ex- 
positors unanimously  agree,  to  the  Antichrist,  whose 
spirit  is  the  pope,  but  whose  body  is  another,  who 
corporeally  oppresses,  destroys  and  persecutes  the  con- 
gregation of  the  Lord."  Many  modern  interpreters 
understand  it  as  referring  to  Antiochus  Epii)hanes, 
and  to  him  only ;  but  as  Kliefoth  has  rightly  ob- 
served, "  What  is  here  said  of  the  king  far  transcends, 
in  all  its  dimensions,  the  measure  of  Antiochus." 
That  this  Seleucid  tyrant  and  despoiler  of  the  Jews 
is  embraced  in  the  description  may  be  readily  ad- 
mitted ;  but  the  relation  of  Antiochus  to  ^^the  king,'' 
upon  whom  the  emphasis  here  falls,  is  no  more  than 
that  of  Cyrus  to  Christ,  or  that  of  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem  by  the  Romans  to  the  end  of  the  world. 
The  one  is  simply  the  typical  forerunner  of  the  other. 
Identity  or  the  confinement  of  the  portrait  to  Anti- 
ochus is  never  once  to  be  thought  of,  unless  we  can 


286  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

arrange  to  transfer  him  clown  to  the  still-pending 
period  of  the  resnrrection  of  the  dead,  to  which  the 
time  of  this   monster  is  so  specifically  assigned. 

Whoever  this  king  may  be,  or  from  whatever  qnar- 
ter  he  may  come,  he  is  the  last  representative  of  tlie 
bestial  world-power  that  ever  bears  rule  upon  earth. 
The  terms  of  the  angel's  description,  particidarly  as 
continued  in  the  succeeding  chapter,  establish  this  be- 
yond mistake.  He  is  to  "  prosper  till  the  indignation 
be  accomplished  " — till  God's  angry  visitations  on  the 
Jews  for  their  sins  are  finally  and  for  ever  exhausted 
and  ended — which  is  manifestly  not  yet  the  fact.  In 
the  ninth  chapter  the  angel  had  said  that  "  desolations 
are  determined  " — desolations  which  "  make  desolate 
even  until  the  consummation  ;"  and  he  here  says  that 
this  king  shall  prosper  for  the  doing  of  "  that  that 
is  determined."  His  prosperity  must  therefore  run 
to  the  consummation.  And  so  in  the  next  chapter 
the  time  of  his  doings  is  specifically  noted  as  contem- 
poraneous with  the  period  of  the  great  tribulation — 
the  ])eriod  when  the  woes  of  tlie  prophet's  people  are 
to  reach  a  perpetual  end — the  period  when  every  one 
written  in  the  Book  shall  be  delivered — the  period 
when  the  many  who  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth 
shall  be  raised  to  life  again — the  period  when  the 
scroll  of  prophecy  shall  be  exhausted  by  fulfilment — 
*^the  time  of  the  end" — "  the  end  of  the  days,"  when 
Daniel  shall  stand  in  his  lot.  The  character  assigned 
to  this  king,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  angel  intro- 
duces him  as  "  the  king/'  identifies  him  with  the  little 
horn  which  comes  up  after  the  ten  kings  in  the  first 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  ANTICHRIST.  287 

vision  (chap.  vii.  23-26),  and  with  the  'M^ing  of 
fierce  countenance  and  understanding  dark  sentences" 
in  the  second  vision  (clmp.  viii.  21-25),  and  with  "tlie 
prince  that  sliall  come/'  who  makes  a  covenant  with 
many  for  seven  yt'ars,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  seven 
breaks  it  and  desecrates  the  temple  with  abominations, 
as  stated  in  the  third  vision  (chap.  ix.  26,  27).  But 
the  power  spoken  of  in  each  of  those  instances  extends 
to  the  termination  of  all  mere  human  rule  on  earth — 
to  the  sittino^  of  the  iudgment — to  the  time  when  trans- 
crressors  are  come  to  the  full — ^'  even  until  the  consum- 
mation.'^  He  must  therefore  be  the  very  last  of  this 
world's  powers. 

And  so  again,  whoever  this  king  may  be,  and  from 
whatever  quarter  he  may  come,  he  is  an  individual 
person,  the  same  as  Cyrus,  Cambyses,  Darius  Hystas- 
pes,  Xerxes  or  Alexander;  for  he  is  designated  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  way,  by  the  same  angel,  in  the  same 
continuous  narrative.  Also,  in  the  previous  visions 
he  is  spoken  of  with  reference  to  personal  features 
and  qualities  which  must  pertain  to  an  individual 
man,  and  cannot  be  fairly  interpreted  of  a  continu- 
ous succession  of  monarchs  or  operators.  He  is 
specially  styled  ''the  prince  that  is  to  come,"  in 
distinction  from  the  kingdom  or  people  whom  he 
is  eventually  to  command  and  represent.  Nor  can 
any  one  read  the  account  of  him  given  in  the  text, 
or  in  other  passages  (k^scriptive  of  the  same  potency, 
without  receiving  the  impression  that  he  is  some  one 
remarkable  individual  personage.  And  the  terms  in 
which  the  duration  of  his  power  is  expressed,  which 


288  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

no  solid  exegesis  can  extend  over  seven  years,  make  it 
quite  certain  that  it  is  one  man — not  a  long  succession 
of  men — who  is  the  subject  of  this  prophecy. 

Antichrist  indeed  exists  in  all  time,  but  only  as  a 
working  spirit  which  has  not  yet  come  to  its  final 
development  and  concentrated  embodiment.  Hence 
John  said  that  in  his  day  already  there  were  "  many 
antichrists;"  and  hence  Paul  said  that  when  he  wrote 
"  the  mystery  of  iniquity  "  did  already  work.  And 
so  it  has  been  working  in  all  ages  in  false  doctrines 
and  in  the  varied  oppositions  to  Jehovah's  rule,  king- 
dom, people  and  word.  In  this  sense  the  oppressive 
and  destructive  pagan  governments  of  old  time  were 
antichrists,  and  Popery  and  Mohammedanism  are  an- 
tichrists, and  all  heresies,  infidelities,  philosophies,  sys- 
tems or  governments  antagonistic  to  God's  truth  and 
to  Jesus  Christ  as  the  only  Lord  and  Saviour  of  man 
are  antichrists.  But  they  are  not  the  Antichrist,  except 
in  spirit,  in  type,  in  modified  and  not  fully-matured 
form  ;  just  as  Christ  was  in  the  institutes,  hope  and 
spirit  of  God's  believing  people  in  the  ages  before  He 
was  born,  and  as  He  is  still  in  and  with  His  Church 
prior  to  His  awaited  revelation  in  the  fulness  and  maj- 
esty of  His  glory  and  power.  But  as  Christ  is  to  come 
in  person,  to  be  revealed  with  His  saints,  to  appear,  to 
be  manifested  in  a  visible  and  open  display  of  himself 
to  all  eyes,  so  Paul  tells  us  that  the  Man  of  Sin,  the 
Son  of  Perdition,  is  to  be  revealed,  to  show  himself,  to 
be  manifested  in  a  corresponding  apocalypse.  And 
when  antagonism  to  God,  His  Christ,  His  truth.  His 
people  and  His  kingdom  stands  thus  finally  revealed, 


THE  REIGN  OE  THE  ANTICHRIST.  289 

it  is  ill  the  person  of  one  individual  man,  who  is  the 
embodiment  of  the  devil  and  all  sin,  to  offset  and  su- 
persede the  incarnation  of  God  and  all  good  in  Jesus 
Christ,  our  King.  So  all  the  Fathers  of  the  early 
Church  unanimously  understood  the  matter,  and  so 
the  Jewish  interpreters  of  the  Old  Testament  explain- 
ed about  the  anti-3Iessiah.  There  are  many  germi- 
nant  and  precursory  antichrists,  but  the  Antichrist  is 
one  individual  person. 

Whence  this  king  is  to  come  cannot  perhaps  be 
definitely  decided  in  the  present  state  of  Biblical 
interpretation.  Some  think  that  he  will  be  a  Jew 
of  the  tribe  of  Dan,  for  the  reason  that  Dan  is  de- 
scribed as  "  a  serpent  by  the  way/'  and  as  none  of 
the  one  hundred  and  forty-four  thousand  sealed  ones 
referred  to  in  the  Apocalypse  (chap,  vii.)  are  taken  from 
Dan.  Others  are  quite  confident  that  he  will  at  least 
be  an  Oriental  in  general  character,  and  will  take  his 
rise  from  one  or  the  other  of  the  four  divisions  of  the 
dominion  of  Alexander.  Many  are  very  sure  that  he 
will  in  some  way  succeed  to  the  Roman  emperorship, 
as  he  is  said  (in  Rev.  xvii.)  to  be  the  eighth,  and  of 
the  seventh  head  of  the  last  beast,  which  last  beast  is 
Rome,  and  these  heads  are  kings  or  forms  of  gov- 
ernment. Rev.  xvii.  7-11.  Others  think  that  he  is 
some  one  of  the  great  deceased  representatives  of  in- 
iquity, by  Satan's  power  resurrected  from  the  dead,  as 
he  is  said  to  "  ascend  out  of  the  bottomless  pit,"  out  of 
the  Hadean  abyss,  and  to  have  received  a  deadly  wound, 
from  which  he  had  ceased  to  be,  and  yet  is  entirely 
recovered.  Rev.  xiii.  3,  12;  xvii.  8.     It  is  impossible 

19 


290  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

to  decide  between  these  o})inions.  It  may  turn  out 
that  all  of  them  are  founded  in  truth.  But  it  is  quite 
certain  that  he  is  no  ordinary  personage — that  he  is,  to 
a  great  extent,  a  supernatural  being,  energized  with  all 
the  subtlety  and  power  of  Satan,  and  accompanied 
with  the  power  of  working  miracles.  Paul  says  ex- 
pressly that  he  will  manifest  himself  by  "  the  work- 
ing of  Satan,  with  all  power,  and  signs  and  lying 
wonders'^  (2  Thess.  ii.  9) ;  and  John  foresaw  him  at- 
tended with  the  doing  of  ^'  great  wonders,"  even  to 
the  making  of  fire  drop  from  heaven  and  the  giving 
of  life  and  speech  to  a  metallic  image.  Rev.  xiii.  IS- 
IS. His  power,  his  seat  and  his  great  authority,  it  is 
specifically  stated,  are  given  him  by  the  dragon  (Rev. 
xii.  9  ;  xiii.  2),  just  as  the  angel  said  to  Daniel,  "  his 
power  shall  be  mighty,  but  not  by  his  own  power." 
Chap.  viii.  24.  Thus  Satan  proposed  to  give  to 
Christ  '^  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  and  all  the 
glory  of  them."  Jesus  declined  the  tempting  pro- 
posal, but  the  devil  eventually  finds  one  to  accept  it 
on  the  prescribed  terms,  and  thus  comes  the  Anti- 
christ, for  the  chastisement  of  the  guilty  world  and 
the  hopeless  perdition  of  every  one  who  espouses 
his  cause. 

Let  us  turn  now  to  the  more  particular  delineation 
of  this  monster  and  his  career  as  given  in  the  pas- 
sage immediately  before  us. 

The  angel  abruptly  introduces  him  as  "  the  kmg.^^ 
With  the  same  abruptness  and  in  the  same  words 
Isaiah,  in  two  different  places  (Isa.  xxx.  33;  Ivii.  9), 
introduces  him.     Tlie  implication  is  not  only  that  he 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  ANTICHRIST.  291 

is  to  bear  rule  as  an  earthly  monarch,  but  that  he 
is  so  peculiarly  and  pre-eminently  the  wielder  of  all 
earthly  dominion  as  to  be  the  one  consummate  sov- 
ereign of  all  time,  Avhose  distinction  from  all  other 
kings  is  so  great  and  marked  that  there  is  no  danger 
of  confounding  him  with  them.  He  is  the  king  Avho 
stands  as  the  main  figure  of  all  earthly  potencies,  and 
fills  out  to  its  final  fulness  the  entire  prophetic  picture 
of  this  world's  sovereignty. 

"And  the  king  shall  do  according  to  his  wiliy  This 
is  a  statement  of  profoundest  import.  Wilfulness  is 
the  essence  and  soul  of  sin.  Wilfulness  was  its  cha- 
racteristic from  the  beginning.  A¥il fulness  was  the 
sin  of  fallen  angels,  and  it  was  the  sin  of  Adam. 
Nor  can  the  fullest  development  and  maturity  of  sin 
exceed  this  doing  according  to  one's  own  will.  It  is 
here  given  as  the  fundamental  thing  in  the  character 
of  the  Man  of  Sin.  And  let  the  lesson  not  be  lost 
upon  us.  All  people  are  full  of  wilfulness.  They 
show  it  from  earliest  childhood  till  they  die.  Many 
even  admire  it  as  manliness  and  virtue.  But  there 
is  nothing  more  antichristian — no  sum  or  enormity 
of  crime  that  can  go  beyond  it.  The  very  imper- 
sonation of  all  sin  only  does  according  to  his  own 
will.  The  devil  himself  does  no  more.  And  if 
people  will  be  free-thinkers  and  free-doers,  acknow- 
ledging no  law  but  their  own  natural  clioice  and 
pleasure,  they  should  remember  that  they  are  doing 
exactly  what  makes  the  Antichrist  Antichrist,  and 
thus  mark  themselves  as  belontrinir  to  his  foul  herd. 
The  Christian's  law  is  not  his  own  will,  but  God's 


292  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

will — God's  will  alone,  always  and  in  everything, 
bringing  every  thought  into  captivity  to  Christ.  If 
it  be  not  so  with  us,  we  are  not  of  Christ,  but  of 
Antichrist ;  for  all  the  piled-up  guilt  of  that  Wicked 
One  is  nothing  more  than  doing  according  to  his 
own  will.  At  present  God  does  not  allow  men  fully 
to  act  out  their  will.  By  His  providence  He  throws 
restraints  about  them  and  hinders  them  from  going 
beyond  certain  limits.  If  it  were  not  for  this,  society 
would  soon  go  to  utter  ruin.  But  the  time  is  com- 
ing when  that  which  hindereth  shall  be  taken  out 
of  the  way,  and  the  haters  of  the  truth  be  given 
over  to  act  out  their  own  perverseness  to  the  full. 
Satan's  cheats  being  preferred  to  Jehovah's  pure  and 
righteous  rule,  God  will  permit  him  to  bring  about 
all  his  plans,  that  he  may  delude  them  to  the  utmost. 
And  when  it  comes  to  the  supreme  enthronement 
of  man's  own  hell-inspired  will,  it  is  the  Antichrist 
complete. 

The  results  are  naturally  to  be  anticipated.  The 
ki7ig  will  exalt  himself.  The  doctrine  of  man's  native 
dignity,  and  the  pratings  about  the  sublime  capabil- 
ities and  powers  of  unregenerate  human  nature,  will 
yet  destroy  the  world.  The  kingdom  is  for  the  poor 
in  spirit.  The  inheritance  of  the  earth  is  for  the 
meek.  The  royal  road  to  exaltation  is  humility. 
Whatever  differs  from  this  is  Antichrist ;  and  Anti- 
christ means  certain  damnation.  Whosoever  is  proud 
and  self-exalting,  thereby  takes  part  and  position 
with  Antichrist,  endorses  him,  enacts  him.  And 
when  selfish  pride  is  once  seated  in  the  heart  there 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  ANTICHRIST.  293 

are  no  bounds  to  which  it  will  not  go  if  left  un- 
hindered. 

The  angel  says  of  this  king,  ^^  he  shall  magnify  him- 
sslf/'  not  only  above  every  man,  but  "above  every 
godJ^  Even  "  the  God  of  gods,"  the  great  Jehovah 
himself,  is  singled  out  for  special  blasphemy  and  de- 
fiance. Some  have  pronounced  the  Antichrist  an 
atheist,  but  he  is  not  so  much  the  denier  of  God's 
existence  as  the  setter-up  of  himself  to  be  the  greater 
god,  the  true  god  of  Nature's  powers,  the  rival  of 
Omnipotence,  the  superior  of  the  Great  Eternal.  The 
mere  thought  of  such  pretensions  makes  one  tremble. 
And  yet  to  these  heights  of  guilty  presumption  and 
untruth  does  the  proud  self-will  of  man  lead.  Not 
the  God  of  his  fathers,  not  that  Holy  One  of  whom 
every  pious  woman  for  four  thousand  years  desired 
to  be  the  mother,  nor  any  god  or  divine  thing,  can 
command  the  least  respect  or  consideration  from  this 
wilful  man,  "for  he  shall  magnify  himself  above  all.'' 
O  ye  people  of  unbelief  and  irreligion,  who  despise 
worship  and  hate  sacred  things,  and  disdain  to  honor 
the  Lord  God  of  your  fathers,  and  care  nothing  for 
the  eternal  Powers  !  behold  with  whom  you  identify 
yourselves,  whose  cause  it  is  that  you  abet,  and  to 
what  your  impiety  is  the  initiation ! 

But,  with  all  his  irreligion,  this  king  is  still  a 
patron  of  W'Orship.  Man  cannot  do  without  some 
deity.  In  the  estate  or  place  of  God  he  shall  honor 
the  god  of  Mauzzim — the  spirit-forces  wdiich  energize 
the  doings  of  the  wicked  and  animate  all  wars  and 
tyrannies — a  deity  which  his  fathers  never  knew,  or 


294  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON 

any  other  worshippers — a  power  of  which  he  claims, 
perhaps,  to  be  the  embodioient  and  representative,  as 
lie  really  is.  Strange  fact !  even  the  most  impious 
have  their  pieties.  Those  who  look  upon  all  estab- 
lished religion  as  superstition,  and  therefore  will  have 
none  of  it,  are  yet  the  most  basely  superstitious.  De- 
nying the  God  who  made  them  and  the  Son  of  God 
who  died  for  them,  and  putting  themselves  above  all 
that  is  called  God,  they  yet  pay  devotion  to  gods 
which  they  themselves  invent.  Trampling  beneath 
his  feet  the  worship  of  the  Father  and  the  Son,  and 
vainly  supposing  himself  the  superior  of  both,  Anti- 
christ still  has  a  god,  a  god  of  his  own  creation,  wh.om 
he  puts  into  Jehovah's  place  and  honors  with  gold, 
silver,  precious  stones  and  pleasant  things — a  god 
whose  temples  are  military  munitions,  and  whose 
apostles  are  sheriffs  and  centurions,  with  sword  and 
branding-iron  to  burn  their  master's  name  into  the 
flesh  of  men,  and  to  cut  off  the  heads  of  those  who 
decline  such  an  obedience.  Thus  shall  he  do  with 
his  strange  god.  The  professed  abolisher  of  super- 
stition becomes  the  patron  of  devil-worship,  and  em- 
ploys the  wealth  and  sword  of  empire  to  enforce  the 
foulest  abominations  that  ever  disgrace  or  afflict  our 
world.  And  such  god-makers  and  devil-worshippers 
are  all  they  who  count  it  superstition  to  reverence  and 
adore  Him  who  made  and  sustains  all  things.  They 
abolish  Jehovah  as  a  myth,  and  set  up  shrines  in 
adoration  of  the  incarnations  of  hell ! 

And  along  with  the  impieties  and  blasphemies  of 
this  man,  the  angel  also  speaks  of  injustice,  misrule. 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  ANTICHRIST.  295 

persecution  and  a  devilish  generosity.  Honoring  his 
infernal  god  with  gold  and  silver  and  precious  stones 
and  pleasant  things,  he  shall  do  his  will  with  the 
strongholds,  helped  by  the  power  of  Satan,  and  give 
glory,  riches  and  dominion  to  those  who  acknpw- 
ledge  and  confess  his  deity.  No  one  shall  be  of  ac- 
count in  his  day  but  those  who  worship  the  devil- 
power.  The  lands  shall  be  seized  and  divided  to 
them,  and  they  shall  have  the  rule,  the  honor  and 
the  offices  as  the  rewards  of  their  horrible  devotions. 
Thus  will  the  idol  shepherd  eat  the  fat  of  the  flock 
which  he  had  covenanted  to  protect,  driving  peace 
and  order  from  the  earth,  and  rendering  it  impossible 
to  live  in  his  dominions  without  accepting  and  abet- 
ting his  awful  abominations. 

People  are  slow  to  believe  it,  but  when  right  re- 
ligion is  trampled  and  despised  every  violence  and 
disorder  comes.  If  men  will  put  the  rule  of  Heaven 
out,  they  necessarily  j)ut  the  confusion  of  Hell  in. 
Apostasy  brings  the  Antichrist,  and  the  reign  of  the 
Antichrist  is  the  overturning  of  all  the  foundations 
on  which  the  social  economy  of  the  world  rests,  en- 
tailing a  condition  of  trouble  the  greatest  that  has 
ever  been  or  ever  will  be  thereafter.  Wars,  outrages 
and  bloody  confusion  shall  mark  the  days  as  they 
pass.  From  the  south  and  from  the  north  nation 
shall  be  dashed  against  nation  and  power  fight 
Avith  power,  and  country  after  country  sink  beneath 
the  overwhelming  flood  of  violence  and  desolation. 
Because  men  reject  the  only  saving  truth,  strong  de- 
lusion shall  sway  them  to  a  damnation  begun  already 


296  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

while  yet  living  and  acting  in  this  world.  The  spir- 
its of  devils  take  the  place  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
and  "go  forth  unto  the  kings  of  the  earth  and  of 
the  whole  world,  to  gather  them  to  the  battle  of 
that  great  day  of  God  Almighty/'  w^ien  the  wine- 
press of  the  Divine  Wrath  shall  be  trodden  till  the 
blood  flows  in  depth  to  the  horses'  bridles  for  two 
hundred  miles!  Rev.  xiv.  19,  20;  xvii.  14;  xix. 
11-21. 

Alas  !  alas !  how  little  do  men  dream  of  the  hor- 
rors they  are  preparing  for  the  world  by  their  apos- 
tasies from  God,  His  word.  His  Son,  His  ordinances 
and  His  service,  and  by  the  Satanic  philosophies 
which  they  persist  in  putting  in  the  place  of  His 
holy  revelations  !  When  it  is  too  late  to  undo  the 
dreadful  mischief  they  will  see  their  folly.  Fain 
would  we  pray  and  preach  and  entreat  that  mankind 
may  not  be  so  deluded  ;  but  the  masses  have  already 
sold  themselves  to  the  devil,  broken  away  from  all 
sacred  influences,  ruptured  the  ties  of  heavenly  ob- 
ligation, and  no  hope  remains  save  for  the  few  who 
perchance  may  be  snatched  as  brands  from  the  burn- 
ing pile. 

But  it  is  not  possible  that  such  a  monstrosity  of 
arrogance  and  iniquity  should  long  continue.  Though 
he  plant  the  tabernacles  of  his  palaces  between  the 
seas  in  the  glorious  holy  mountain,  and  sit  in  the 
temple  of  God  as  verily  the  Almighty  himself,  "  he 
shall  come  to  his  end,  and  none  shall  help  him." 
His  god  of  Mauzzim  fails  him,  after  all.  There  is 
a  mightier  God,  whose  right  it  is  to  reign,  and  who 


THE  BEIGN  OF  THE  ANTICHRIST.  297 

will  reign.  He  who  wears  ui)oii  His  vesture  and 
upon  His  thighs  tlie  name  written,  Lord  of  lords 
AND  King  of  kings,  shall  at  the  last  extremity 
uncover  himself,  accompanied  with  all  the  glorified 
battalions  of  his  saints,  and  rain  down  hail  and  fire 
and  brimstone  on  the  hosts  of  the  adversary,  whilst 
hell  opens  its  mouth  to  engulf  tlie  great  Deceiver, 
who  goes  down  alive  into  a  lake  of  fire.  Zechariah 
tells  the  story  more  fully  where  he  says :  "  Then 
shall  the  Lord  go  forth,  and  fight  against  those 
nations,  as  w4ien  He  fought  in  the  day  of  battle. 
And  His  feet  shall  stand  in  that  day  upon  tlie  Mount 
of  Olives,  which  is  before  Jerusalem  on  the  east,  and 
the  Mount  of  Olives  shall  cleave  in  the  midst  there- 
of. ..  .  And  the  Lord  shall  be  King  over  all  the 
earth."  Zech.  xiv.  Thus  shall  that  Wicked  One  be 
overwhelmed,  "  whom  the  Lord  shall  consume  with 
the  spirit  of  His  mouth,  and  destroy  with  the  bright- 
ness of  His  coming."  2  Thess.  ii.  8. 

Are  there,  then,  any  signs  or  symptoms  from  which 
we  may  legitimately  infer  the  near  coming  of  any  such 
a  state  of  tilings  in  our  world  ?  I  believe  that  there 
are,  and  that  they  are  both  many  and  evident.  Though 
multitudes  believe  and  preach  that  the  age  in  which 
we  live  is  the  most  glorious  and  hopeful  that  was 
ever  known,  and  consider  that  we  are  now  on  the 
very  threshold  of  a  grand  jubilee  of  universal  in- 
telligence, brotherhood  and  liberty  for  all  men,  in 
which  the  golden  dreams  of  so  many  ages  are  about 
to  be  fulfilled  in  the  onward  flow  of  human  improve- 
ment and  progress,  it  is  in  the  very  principles  and 


298  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

foundations  on  which  all  this  is  hoped  and  prognos- 
ticated that  I  see  the  coming  of  the  Antichrist.  If 
men  would  only  sift  it  to  the  real  elements  of  which 
it  is  made  up,  they  could  not  fail  to  detect  in  it  the 
very  spirit  out  of  which  the  divinely-predicted  Man 
of  Sin  must  come. 

If  men  will  look  at  what  is  most  lauded  and 
gloried  in  as  the  intellectual  greatness  of  our  times, 
they  will  find  it  summed  up  in  a  vaunting  material- 
ism, which  finds  its  life  and  crown  in  inspections  and 
manipulations  of  the  lower  elements,  till  it  has  come 
to  be  concluded  in  leading  circles  that  everything  is 
derivable  from  slime,  without  a  personal  God  or  need 
of  revelations  from  Him.  This  is  the  spirit  of  the 
prevailing  philosophies — of  the  popular  theories  of 
education,  politics  and  legislation — of  the  noisy  re- 
forms which  propose  to  do  away  with  human  ills 
without  the  word  and  ordinances  of  Jehovah — and 
of  many  of  the  most  favored  religious  activities, 
which  boast  of  having  outgrown  the  ancient  creeds, 
and  are  eating  away  the  vital  substance  of  all  sound 
doctrine.  We  have  only  to  dig  down  into  the  inner 
kernel  of  modern  thought  and  feeling  in  order  to 
find  lodged  there,  in  one  form  or  another,  and  more 
or  less  swaying  the  whole  spirit  of  the  age,  a  doc- 
trine which  enthrones,  adores  and  worships  Progress 
as  the  great  hoj^e  of  the  world,  holds  man  to  be  an 
ever- improving  grow^th,  and  practically  accepts  evo- 
lution as  the  bringer  of  a  glorious  reign  of  wisdom, 
peace  and  blessedness  yet  to  come  in  this  present 
world,  without  need  of  any  kingdom  to  be  brought 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  ANTICHRIST.  299 

to  us  from  the  heavens  or  any  changes  by  tlie  mirac- 
ulous power  of  God.  This  is  the  sum  of  the  teach- 
ings of  scientists,  of  the  theories  of  government  and 
law,  and  of  the  popular  theologies.  Even  the  faith 
held  by  most  professed  Christians  is  but  the  aggre- 
gate of  changeable  and  growing  sentiments,  ever 
throwing  off  the  old  and  putting  on  the  new,  rather 
than  the  fixed  literal  revelations  of  God,  which  are 
the  same  for  all  ages  alike.  In  other  words,  the 
heart,  pulse  and  ruling  ideas  of  our  times  exhibit 
all  the  indications  of  that  very  apostasy,  or  "  falling 
away,''  which  Paul  fore-announced  as  the  forerunner, 
beginning,  spirit  and  cause  of  the  Man  of  Sin  and 
his  disastrous  revelation.  The  seed  is  planted  and 
growing,  and  meets  in  our  age  a  congenial  season  for 
rapid  development  and  speedy  maturity. 

Accordingly,  also,  we  everywhere  and  in  all  circles 
and  teachings  hear  about  the  Coming  Man.  The  idea 
is  treated  somewhat  jestingly,  but  it  is  not  a  mere 
fancy,  myth  or  play  on  words.  It  expresses  some- 
thing which  is  inlaid  in  the  theories  and  principles 
which,  in  one  shape  or  another,  are  governing  the 
thinking  and  expectations  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
most  active  and  potent  existing  mind.  The  feeling 
and  constant  implication  in  the  noisiest  as  well  as 
the  most  subtle  of  modern  demonstrations  is,  that 
nothing  is  settled ;  that  the  great  problems  of  human 
life,  including  society,  government,  philosophy  and 
religion,  all  yet  remain  to  be  solved;  that  what  has 
hitherto  been  taken  as  final  authority  is  not  final, 
and   no   authority  at  all ;   that  there    remains   to   be 


300  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

wrought  out  a  thorough  reconstruction  in  ail  earthly 
affairs  on  other  foundations  than  those  which  have 
served  mankind  in  past  ages;  and  that  there  must 
come  a  new  order  of  the  social  fabric,  with  new  reg- 
ulating forces,  exhibiting  another  style  of  man  in  all 
the  relations  of  life.  And,  as  things  now  go,  what 
the  majority  ordains  and  determines  will  be.  But 
when  that  Coming  Man,  who  is  thus  developing, 
comes,  he  can  be  none  other  than  this  very  Man 
of  Sin,  the  Lawless  One,  the  Antichrist,  foreseen 
and  foretold  by  the  holy  prophets ;  for  the  final, 
concentred  maturity  of  human  progress,  cut  loose 
from  the  time-honored  laws  and  institutes  of  Jeho- 
vah, is  the  Antichrist.  And  with  this  manifest  and 
inevitable  tendency  of  things  before  our  eyes,  and 
the  accepted  thinkers  of  the  world,  including  many 
among  the  most  influential  in  the  professed  Church 
of  God,  abetting  the  conceit  as  man's  great  hope, 
ignoring  the  proper  Christ  of  our  salvation,  and  vir- 
tually denying  both  the  Father  and  the  Son  by  the 
philosophies  they  entertain,  what  is  it  that  we  see  but 
the  preparing  of  the  way  for  the  Antichrist  and  the 
manifest  token  of  the  nearness  of  his  revelation  ? 
What  the  leaders  of  mankind  thus  unitedly  covet 
and  labor  for  as  the  goal  of  the  race  must  come,  and 
much  sooner,  perhaps,  than  they  anticipate ;  but  the 
result  will  be  the  sorest  plague  the  earth  has  ever 
felt,  bringing  with  it  all  the  disasters  of  the  last 
great  catastrophe.  Princ'q^les  are  living  things,  and 
must  work  out  what  is  in  them  ;  and  w^hen  we  see 
them  inrooted   in  all   the   forces  and  activities  most 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  ANTICHRIST.  301 

potent  in  human  society,  we  may  be  sure  of  what  is 
coming.  Only  the  miraculous  intervention  of  Om- 
nipotence can  hinder  it.  And  as  God  has  fore-an- 
nounced that  He  will  not  interfere  to  thwart  these 
last  experiments  of  the  apostate  race — that  His  Spirit 
shall  not  always  strive  with  men — nay,  that  He  will 
take  out  of  the  way  that  which  hindereth, — doubt 
of  the  near  fulfilment  of  all  that  the  prophets  have 
foretold  about  the  last  years  of  this  present  world 
must  disappear.  Details  are  needless  where  the  prin- 
ciples are  so  manifest,  so  earnestly  embraced  and  so 
universally  pursued. 

Yes,  brethren,  God  is  about  to  deal  with  the  earth 
as  He  never  before  has  dealt  with  it,  and  everything 
is  maturing  for  the  day  of  trial.  Men  are  busy  with 
their  plans,  and  think  to  work  out  sublime  results  by 
their  endeavors  and  agencies.  They  are  fondly  hop- 
ing soon  to  see  the  world  set  right,  all  social  and  re- 
ligious questions  gloriously  adjudicated,  by  the  grow- 
ing intelligence  of  the  world.  They  are  joyously  ex- 
pecting ere  long  to  behold  all  disabilities  removed,  and 
iJl  the  hardships  which  oppress  the  many  done  away, 
through  the  ever-improving  machinery  of  education, 
evangelization,  benevolence,  freedom  and  popular  leg- 
islation. They  mean  it  well,  and  often  throw  into  it 
an  amount  of  zeal  and  devotion  which  proves  that 
they  are  sincere.  But  their  hopes  are  falsely  ground- 
ed. They  reason  from  a  mistaken  philosophy.  The 
only  regeneration  of  the  world  the  Scriptures  tell  of 
is  of  a  different  order  and  comes  in  quite  another 
way.  This  humanitarian  rationalizing,  which  so  tortures 


302  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

the  divine  word  to  bring  it  into  accord  with  human 
wishes,  and  all  this  building  on  the  reforms,  efforts 
and  agencies  of  men,  will  fail.  It  is  in  a  line  which 
makes  a  Saviour  for  the  world  who  is  not  the  Christ, 
but  the  Antichrist.  People  embrace  it  for  good,  and 
devote  themselves  to  it  as  the  very  spirit  of  the  Gos- 
pel as  distinguished  from  the  rejected  letter;  but  it  is 
the  evil  genius  of  our  times,  by  which  Satan  would 
deceive,  if  possible,  the  very  elect.  So  far  from  bring- 
ing the  expected  triumph  of  good  and  blessedness,  it 
will  eventually  embody  itself  in  one  great  head,  whom 
it  will  take  for  its  champion,  who  supplants  the  Christ 
and  introduces  all  the  anarchy  and  misrule  of  hell.  It 
is  the  spirit  of  self-redemption,  baptizing  itself  with 
the  Saviour's  name  and  usurping  the  Saviour's  prero- 
gatives, wliil^t  it  really  rejects  Him  and  His  glorious 
coming  from  its  scheme,  and  with  songs  of  a  nearing 
paradise  beguiles  to  a  hopeless  perdition.  It  is  the 
great  snare  of  Satan  by  which  he  is  captivating  the 
world,  and  will  effectually  captivate  it  to  its  destruc- 
tion. It  is  the  last  great  temptation  of  God's  people, 
by  which  myriads  on  myriads  shall  be  drifted  to  eter- 
nal shipwreck.  And  this  is  that  Antichrist  whereof 
ye  have  heard  that  he  shall  come.  May  the  Lord 
save  us  from  his  subtleties  ! 


LECTURE   FOURTEENTH. 

The    Final    Outcome;    or,    The    Great 
Consummation. 

Daniel  12  : 1-13. 

WE  now  approach  the  conclusion  of  this  Book  of 
wonders.  A  grand  panorama  of  empires,  revo- 
lutions, oppressions,  deliverances,  crimes,  punishments 
and  special  interferences  from  Heaven  and  from  Hell 
— a  sketch  of  all  the  great  mysteries  of  Jehovah's 
providence  in  all  time — has  been  passing  in  review 
before  us,  and  we  now  come  to  the  last  scenes,  to 
the  final  outcome,  to  the  great  consummation  of  the 
whole.  Brief  glimpses  of  the  end  have  been  greet- 
ing us  at  each  great  crisis  in  the  prophetic  narration, 
for  in  God's  doings  the  beginnings  always  include  the 
end,  as  the  end  presupposes  all  that  goes  before  it,  but 
our  attention  is  now  to  be  occupied  entirely  with  that 
consummation  itself. 

It  is  a  little  unfortunate  that  this  chapter  has  been 
severed  from  what  immediately  precedes  it,  since  it  is 
really  not  only  the  continuation  of  the  address  of  the 
same  speaker,  but  the  accompaniment  and  sequel  of 
the  same  subject.  This  dividing  of  the  Bible  into 
chapters  and  verses  is,  for  the  most  part,  the  work  of 
modern  printers,  not  of  the  inspired  authors;  and  bad 
work  has  often  been   made  of  it.     The  separation,  if 

303 


304  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

any,  should  be  at  the  end  of  the  third  verse,  and  not 
here.  The  very  first  words  in  this  last  chapter  refer 
what  follows  them  to  exactly  the  same  period  of  that 
which  was  foretold  in  the  latter  part  of  the  chapter 
before  it.  We  there  had  an  account  of  the  still  fu- 
ture Antichrist,  and  all  that  is  here  given  also  belongs 
to  his  time. 

Some  are  of  opinion  that  it  Is  not  for  man  to  under- 
stand these  predictions.  In  the  eighth  chapter  (26) 
the  angel  directed  the  prophet  to  ^'  shut  up  the  vis- 
ion,'^ seeing  it  was  for  a  period  in  the  far  future;  so 
also  in  the  fourth  verse  of  this  last  chapter,  having 
completed  his  account  of  things  to  come,  the  angel 
said,  "  But  thou,  O  Daniel,  shut  up  the  words,  and 
seal  the  book,  even  unto  the  time  of  the  end ;"  and 
again,  in  verse  9,  he  said,  "  the  words  are  closed  up 
and  sealed  till  the  time  of  the  end."  This  has  been 
taken  to  mean  that  the  prophet  was  to  conceal  what 
was  said,  and  to  hide  it  from  all  human  understand- 
ing, until  the  time  of  its  fulfilment.  But  whilst  a 
perfect  understanding  of  these  predictions  may  not 
be  reached  until  their  fulfilment  makes  them  plain, 
the  meaning  of  these  expressions  is  the  very  reverse 
of  what  some  thus  attach  to  them.  If  the  command 
was  that  these  things  should  be  made  incomprehen- 
sible, it  is  impossible  to  see  why  the  revelation  was 
given  at  all.  Besides,  there  is  an  object  assigned  for 
this  shutting  uj)  and  sealing,  which,  so  fiir  from 
preventing  the  prophecy  from  being  understood,  was 
so  to  protect  it  that  men  might  come  to  it  and  in- 
crease their  knowledge  and  understanding  of  it;  for 


THE  FINAL  OUTCOME. 


305 


this  is  the  real  sense  of  the   words  rendered  "  many 
shall    run    to    and    fro,    and  knowledge  shall  be  in- 
creased."    If  the    shutting    up    and    sealing    of    the 
prophecy  was  the  excluding  of  it  from  man's  under- 
standing,   this   growth    of    knowledge   concerning   it 
would  be  an  impossibility.     We  must  therefore  look 
for  some  other  meaning  of  this  shutting  and  sealing 
which  shall  better  accord  with  other  features  of  the 
record.    Fortunately,  we  find  similar  language  used  in 
Isaiah  (viii.  6),  wliere  the  sense  is  the  very  reverse  of 
hiding  or  obscuring.    God  there  says, ''  Bind  [or  shut] 
up  the  testimony,  seal  the  law  among  my  disciples ;" 
but   the    succeeding   verses   show   that   this  shutting 
and  sealing  had   reference   to   the   authentication  of 
the    testimony    and   law   of  God  as  the  proper  and 
only    rule   to    which    the   people    were    to    come   for 
wisdom  and  direction,    as   it   is  added,  ''To  the  law 
and  to  the   testimony:   if  they  speak   not  according 
to  this  word,  it  is  because  there  is  no  light  in  them." 
The  shutting  up  and  sealing  of  law  and  testimony 
was   not  the  rendering  of  it  unintelligible,   but  the 
securement  to  it  of  its  true  office,  place  and  authority 
as  the  established   test  of  righteousness  and  correct 
information.     And  of  this  sort  was  the  shutting  up 
and  sealing  of  what  the  angel  made  known  to  Daniel. 
Because    it    was    true   and    from  God,    therefore   the 
command  was  to  secure  it  well,  give  it  authentically, 
and   arrange   for   its   perpetual    preservation    as    an 
authoritative  word  from  Heaven,  that  people  in  after 
times  might  consult  and  study  it,  and  thereby  increase 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  divine  plans  and  purposes. 


20 


306  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

The  idea  of  the  angel  was,  that  the  whole  matter 
was  now  complete,  certified  and  true  beyond  all 
addition  or  change,  and  was  so  to  be  treated.  Just 
as  valuable  official  documents  intended  to  direct  and 
inform  successive  generations  are  carefully  engrossed 
and  secured  and  held  inviolable  against  all  tamper- 
ing, that  they  may  be  preserved  entire  and  trans- 
mitted uncorrupted  to  all  whom  they  concern,  so  and 
in  this  sense  and  spirit  was  Daniel  to  shut  up  and 
seal  the  words  of  this  Book.  It  was  not  that  no  one 
should  understand  them,  but  that  we  might  have 
them  in  all  their  authoritative  certainty,  be  sure  of 
their  divine  contents  and  find  in  them  a  right  know- 
ledge of  God's  revelations.  He  was  to  close  up  and 
seal  the  Book,  that  no  additions  or  curtailments  might 
be  made  in  it,  that  it  might  not  be  in  any  wise 
changed,  but  that  it  might  be  kept  sacred  and  secure 
for  all  time,  as  a  veritable  communication  from  God, 
that  men  may  search  it  through  and  through,  and 
thus  learn  ever  more  and  more  of  the  Almighty's 
purposes.  ''  Secret  things  belong  unto  the  Lord," 
and  with  those  we  may  not' presume  to  meddle,  "but 
those  things  which  are  revealed  belong  unto  us  and 
our  children  for  ever,  that  we  may  do  all  the  words 
of  this  law.''  Deut.  xxix.  29.  Let  no  one,  therefore, 
suffer  himself  to  be  deluded  into  the  belief  that  what 
we  have  been  deducing  with  so  much  directness  from 
these  sacred  predictions  is  but  the  empty  speculation 
of  man,  and  not  the  veritable  revelation  of  the  Lord. 
The  interests  we  all  have  at  stake  are  too  many  and 
too  momentous  for  us  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  what  the 


THE  FINAL  OUTCOME.  307 

Almighty  in  His  goodness  has  thus  given  us  for  our 
learning.  Nor  is  the  world  so  rich  in  lights  and 
guides  that  we  can  afford  to  do  without  what  comes 
to  us  with  so  evident  a  seal  of  the  Almi":htv. 

I.  Proceeding,  then,  to  the  matter  now  immedi- 
ately before  us,  we  may  note,  in  the  first  place,  that 
the  time  of  the  Antichrist  will  be  a  time  of  un- 
exampled distress.  The  text  says,  ^^  It  shall  be  a 
time  of  trouble,  such  as  never  was  since  there  was  a 
nation  even  to  that  same  time.'^  Jeremiah  says  of 
it,  ^^Alas  !  for  that  day  is  great,  so  that  none  is  like 
it:  it  is  even  the  time  of  Jacob's  trouble."  The 
Saviour  speaks  of  it  where  He  says,  "Then  shall  be 
great  tribulation,  such  as  was  not  since  the  beginning 
of  the  world  to  this  time,  no,  nor  ever  shall  be." 

This  trouble  will  be  more  or  less  upon  all  people 
then  living  on  the  earth,  but  the  description  liere 
relates  more  especially  to  the  prophet's  people,  the 
seed  of  Abraham,  whose  fortunes  the  angel  said 
(x.  14)  he  had  come  to  make  known.  Hence  Jere- 
miah calls  it  pre-eminently  "  the  time  of  Jacobus 
trouble."  The  principal  scene  of  it  is  "the  Holy 
City,"  Avhich  can  be  none  other  than  Jerusalem,  The 
Antichrist  enters  into  "the  glorious  land,"  ])lants 
"the  tabernacles  of  his  palaces  between  the  seas  in 
the  glorious  holy  mountain,"  takes  away  "  the  dailv 
sacrifice,"  and  sets  up  the  abomination  of  the  Deso- 
later  on  some  part  of  the  temple  ;  all  of  which  goes 
to  identify  Palestine  as  unmistakably  the  chief  seat 
of  these  troubles. 

But  this  necessarily  implies  that  the  Jewish  jieople 


308  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

will  then  have  been  largely  restored,  with  their 
temple  rebuilt  and  their  old  ritual  again  established. 
This  is  a  point  upon  which  many  doubt,  but  upon 
wliich  sacred  prophecy  is  as  clear  and  full  as  upon 
any  other  subject.  That  "  race  of  the  weary  foot/' 
which  has  been  scattered  and  tossed  anion":  the  na 
tions  for  these  eighteen  hundred  years,  yet  as  dis- 
tinct still  as  when  Aaron  was  their  priest  or  Da- 
vid their  king,  and  never  taking  root  in  any  land, 
is  everywhere  spoken  of  in  the  Scriptures  as  reserv- 
ed for  Palestine,  and  Palestine  as  reserved  for  it. 
And  it  is  especially  under  the  first  tliree  and  a  half 
years  of  the  reign  of  the  Antichrist  that  this  return 
and  re-establishment  of  the  Jews  and  their  ancient 
services  will  occur.  Seven  years  is  the  Antichrist 
to  reign,  even  the  last  seven  of  those  seventy  sevens 
divided  out  upon  DaniePs  people  and  the  Holy  City. 
That  term  begins  in  the  conclusion  of  a  solemn  com- 
pact between  him  and  many  of  the  Jews  (see  chap. 
IX.  27) — a  league  of  friendship  and  mutual  support 
and  })rotection — a  covenant  in  which  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple agree  to  accept  him  as  their  great  patron,  king 
and  Messiah,  in  fulfilment  of  those  words  of  the 
Saviour,  "  I  am  come  in  my  Father's  name,  and  ye 
receive  me  not:  if  another  shall  come  in  his  own 
name,  him  ye  will  receive."  John  v.  43.  The  im- 
plication is,  that  under  and  in  pursuance  of  this 
league  the  Jews  will  return,  rebuild  their  tem23le 
and  restore  the  old  order,  which  has  now  been  so 
long  interrupted.  Those  first  three  and  a  half  years 
of  the  Antichrist  or  this  pseudo-Messiah  will  accord- 


THE  FINAL  OUTCOME.  309 

ingly  be  very  prosperous  years  for  the  Jews,  at  least 
in  a  temporal  point  of  view.  Their  population, 
wealth  and  enterprise  will  be  enthusiastically  directed 
toward  the  old  homesteads  of  their  fathers  and  their 
holy  city.  With  a  rapidity  unprecedented  the  most 
wonderful  improvements  will  spring  up  in  Palestine 
and  Jerusalem.  Considering  the  facilities  of  our 
times  and  the  vast  resources  of  this  people,  we  can 
easily  see  that  if  word,  duly  certified  and  believed, 
were  to  go  forth  from  their  wealthiest  and  most  in- 
fluential representatives  that  their  Messiah  has  come 
with  great  authority,  power  and  miracle  to  fulfil  for 
them  in  Jerusalem  all  that  they  have  this  while  been 
carnally  dreaming  about  him,  it  would,  in  a  few  short 
years,  transmute  the  city  of  David  into  the  greatest 
centre  of  interest,  wealth  and  influence  in  our  world. 
And  so  sacred  prophecy  fore-announces  that  it  w^ill  be. 
But  the  idol  shepherd  of  these  deluded  people  will 
soon  prove  himself  the  monster  Desolater,  from  whom 
they  shall  come  into  the  severest  tribulations  ever  ex- 
perienced by  their  race  in  any  period  of  its  existence. 
Accepted  as  Messiah,  he  shall  claim  to  be  God,  abol- 
ish the  Jehovah-services  which  he  assisted  to  restore, 
seize  the  temple  for  the  worship  of  his  own  image, 
escheat  the  lands,  to  be  given  as  rewards  to  his  mis- 
creant adherents  for  acknowledging  his  god  of  Mauz- 
zim,  and  allow  no  one  to  bear  rule,  own  property,  buy 
or  sell  except  such  as  accept  the  branding  of  hand  or 
forehead  with  his  mark  and  the  mark  of  his  infernal 
deity.  Those  who  were  deceived  into  the  acceptance 
of  him  as  their  Savior,  at  the  end  of  the  first  three  and 


310  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

a  half  years  will  find  themselves  in  covenant  with  hell 
and  death,  utterly  helpless  in  the  hands  of  the  most 
monstrous  tyrant  that  ever  lived,  compelled  to  become 
undisguised  and  openly-branded  worshippers  of  the 
devil,  or  lose  every  foot  of  ground  they  own,  every 
office  of  authority  they  hold,  every  means  of  liveli- 
hood, every  protection  in  all  that  is  dear  in  life,  every 
possession  on  which  the  hand  of  wilful  power  can  be 
laid,  and  life  itself,  except  as  it  shall  be  secreted  in 
the  desolate  places  of  the  mountains  and  wilderness, 
not  daring  to  let  itself  be  seen  by  any  of  the  minions 
of  the  devilish  ])ower  which  then  shall  reign. 

Nor  shall  this  state  of  things  be  only  for  a  few 
days,  weeks  or  months,  but  for  full  three  and  a  half 
years.  In  not  less  than  six  diiferent  places,  and  in 
almost  as  many  different  ways,  is  this  declared  in  the 
prophecies,  including  both  Testaments.  It  is  for  "  a 
time  and  times  and  the  dividing  of  time"  (Dan.  vii. 
25) — ''It  shall  be  for  a  time,  times,  and  an  half"  (xii. 
7) — "  the  holy  city  shall  they  tread  under  foot  forty 
and  two  months  "  (Rev.  xi.  2)  — "  the  woman  fled  into 
the  wilderness,  a  thousand  two  hundred  and  three- 
score days" — for  "a  time,  and  tiiues,  and  half  a 
time"  (xii.  6,  14) — "and  power  was  given  him  to 
continue  forty  and  two  months"  (xiii.  5).  All  these 
passages  refer  to  one  and  the  same  period  of  oppres- 
sion and  trouble  under  the  Antichrist,  and  in  each  in- 
stance the  measure  is  three  and  a  half  years,  dating 
from  the  breaking  of  the  league  and  the  suspension  of 
the  daily  offering  to  the  destruction  of  the  monster  by 
the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ.     Our  Lord  ministered 


THE  FINAL  OUTCOME.  311 

on  earth  three  and  a  half  years,  and  the  Antichrist 
shall  enact  his  Satanic  ministry  for  the  same  length 
of  time. 

The  effect  of  all  this  bitter  experience  is  likewise 
stated  by  the  angel.  It  is  the  old  story  over  again. 
Human  nature  is  the  same  whatever  may  be  the  times 
or  administrations.  Peo})le  think  if  things  were«so  or 
so,  the  truth  would  take  hold  on  all  hearts,  and  leave 
none  so  bad  as  to  resist  it;  but  they  only  dream. 
"  If  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither 
-will  they  believe,  though  one  rose  from  the  dead." 
In  all  ages  and  under  all  dispensations  some  get  their 
eyes  open  and  turn  their  hearts  unto  the  Lord,  but 
the  multitude  is  ever  blind  and  unconvertible.  And 
so  it  will  be  even  under  the  extraordinary  scenes  of 
the  great  tribulation.  Many  shall  be  purified  and 
made  white,  and  proved  to  be  genuine  people  of  God. 
Afflictions  are  sent  to  tCvSt  and  bring  out  our  faith. 
Gold  is  refined  and  purified  by  taking  it  through  the 
furnace.  But  the  mass  of  men  are  made  no  better 
from  their  afflictions.  Our  own  times  illustrate  how 
such  things  work.  Everybody  is  bemoaning  the  sor- 
rowful state  of  business  and  of  affairs  in  general. 
The  wails  of  distress  and  lamentation  meet  us  con- 
tinually on  all  hands.  Ills  of  all  sorts  are  said  to 
be  multiplying.  But  are  the  people  improved  ?  Do 
they  not  live  on  as  they  always  have  done  ?  Are  not 
the  masses  much  the  worse  for  it  ?  Look  at  the  play- 
houses and  shows  and  places  of  amusement,  and  see  if 
they  are  not  more  thronged  than  ever.  Observe  our 
avenues  and  pleasure-resorts  on  Sundays,  and  note  the 


312  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

expenditures  and  ])r()fanations  of  the  Lord's  Day  by 
all  ranks  of  society.  Even  professed  Christians,  who 
cannot  spare  a  dollar  for  the  cause  of  Christ,  have 
plenty  to  spend  on  their  lusts  and  vanities,  and  are 
only  the  more  lavish  and  unscrupulous  in  minister- 
ing to  their  own  whims  and  pleasure  as  times  be- 
come more  pressing.  The  many  are  only  hardened 
in  crime  instead  of  being  humbled  to  penitence. 
And  so  it  will  be  even  when  the  great  woes  of  God's 
judgments  come.  '^  The  wicked  shall  do  wickedly," 
and  be  only  the  more  wicked  and  reckless,  and  shut 
their  eyes  and  ears  and  hearts  all  the  tigliter  against 
the  truth.  They  "shall  not  understand,"  because 
they  love  themselves  and  their  owui  perverse  ways 
too  well  to  admit  better  instruction,  preferring  to 
risk  everlasting  damnation  to  the  letting  go  of  a  jot 
of  their  sins,  till  the  great  horrors  of  the  Almighty's 
wrath  engulf  them  for  ever !  So  much,  then,  for  this 
time  of  sorrows. 

II.  Note  now,  in  the  second  place,  that  the  time  of 
the  Antichrist  is  the  time  when  Michael,  the  great 
prince  over  the  children  of  the  prophet's  people,  shall 
stand  up  in  their  behalf.  Some  think  this  the  Lord 
Jesus  himself.  If  so,  then  the  glorious  one  who  ap- 
peared to  the  prophet  in  chapter  x.  cannot  be  the  Son 
of  God.  But  these  are  questions  that  need  not  be 
discussed.  Michael  is  one  of  those  mighty  spiritual 
princes  connected  with  the  administrations  of  God  in 
our  world.  He  is  one  of  the  first  or  highest  of  these 
holy  Powers.  Jude  calls  him  "  the  archangel."  John 
beheld  him  in  command  of  angels  in  the  great  con- 


THE  FINAL  OUTCOME.  313 

flict  with  the  dragon.  He  is  manifestly  one  of  the 
most  exalted,  if  not  the  very  highest,  of  all  celestial 
Powers,  next  to  Eternal  Godhead.  And  to  him  par- 
ticularly is  assigned  the  direction  of  the  affairs  relat- 
ing to  the  Jewish  people  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end.  Hence  the  account  of  his  disputation  with  the 
devil  about  the  body  of  Moses,  Avhilst  he  here  appears, 
in  the  very  closing  years  of  time,  as  the  great  prince 
who  stands  for  the  children  of  the  prophet's  people, 
especially  for  such  of  them  as  have  the  prophet's  ftiith 
and  spirit,  and  thus  prove  themselves  Israel,  and  not 
only  of  Israel.  • 

This  standing  up  of  Michael  includes  a  variety  of 
administrations  not  here  specified.  They  are  elsewhere 
described,  especially  in  the  Apocalypse.  Among  the 
transactions  of  that  time  of  wonders  we  read  of  a  pe- 
culiar ministry  in  the  hands  of  an  augel  from  the  sun- 
rising,  having  the  seal  of  the  living  God,  with  which 
he  seals  one  hundred  and  forty-four  thousand  servants 
of  God  from  among  the  Israelitish  peoples.  Rev.  vii. 
These  were  thenceforward  secured  against  many  of  the 
plagues  with  which  the  rebellious  children  of  men  are 
then  to  be  visited.  Rev.  ix.  4.  So  we  read  again  of 
special  heavenly  ministrations,  the  giving  of  testi- 
mony and  the  measuring  of  the  temple,  the  altar 
and  the  worshippers  therein.  Rev.  x.  11  ;  xii.  1,  2. 
To  the  same  list  of  these  extraordinary  manifestations 
belong  the  prophetic  career  and  doings  of  the  two 
Witnesses,  who  prophesy  for  three  and  a  half  years, 
wdiom  I  have  elsewhere  shown  to  be  two  celestial  })er- 
sonages,  even  Elijah  and  Enoch,  as  understood  by  the 


314  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

early  Church,  and  who  alone,  of  all  then  upon  earth, 
are  able  to  cope  with  the  infamous  Antichrist.  (See 
Rev.  xi.  3-13,  and  my  Lectures  on  the  Apoc.^  in  loc.) 
So,  for  those  who  are  compelled  to  fly  to  the  wilder- 
ness because  they  cannot  consent  to  worship  the  beast 
or  to  receive  his  mark,  there  is  also  a  marked  divine 
manifestation.  There  is  a  place  prej^ared  of  God,  and 
a  miraculous  feeding  of  them  in  their  seclusion  till  the 
Desolater  comes  to  his  end.  Along  with  the  rest  is  the 
sanctification  of  those  dreadful  sorrows  to  the  purify- 
ing and  making  white  of  many  to  whom  these  trials 
were  needful;  afeo  the  war  with  Satan,  which  succeeds 
in  casting  him  down  from  the  aerial  spaces  (Rev.  xii. 
7-13) ;  but,  above  all,  the  fulfilment  of  what  was 
show^n  the  prophet  in  the  first  vision  (chap.  vii.  9- 
12) — to  wit,  the  sitting  of  the  judgment,  the  opening 
of  the  books  and  the  giving  of  the  beast  to  the  burn- 
ing flames.  All  this,  and  perhaps  more,  is  included 
in  this  standing  up  of  Michael  for  the  children  of  the 
prophet's  people,  or  is  directly  connected  with  that 
standing  up.  The  word  of  the  angel  is,  that  at  that 
time  every  one  found  wTitten  in  the  book  shall  be  de- 
livered. And  this  is  simply  the  summation  of  the 
completed  result,  in  the  accomplishment  of  wliich  all 
these  particulars  have  their  part  and  place. 

It  stands  out,  therefore,  as  a  most  thoroughly  au- 
thenticated Scriptural  truth  that  God  is  not  yet  done 
with  the  Jewish  })eoi)le  as  such.  While  this  present 
dispensation  lasts  they  are  in  a  state  of  disinheritance. 
We  are  now^  living  in  "  the  times  of  the  Gentiles." 
The  Jew  at  present  has  no  privileges  beyond  or  above 


THE  FINAL  OUTCOME.  315 

those  of  other  men.  If  he  will  repent  of  his  sins, 
lay  aside  his  conceit  and  self-righteousness  and  be- 
lieve on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the  only  Saviour 
of  men,  he  can  have  salvation  the  same  as  any  other 
mortal ;  but  he  has  no  other  rights  and  no  higher 
privileges  than  the  Gentile,  on  whom  he  looks  with 
so  much  scorn  and  contempt.  But  when  "  the  times 
of  the  Gentiles  are  fulfilled"  and  the  dispensation 
that  now  is  comes  to  its  close,  for  the  fathers'  sakes 
he  shall  again  come  to  the  front.  Michael  the  arch- 
angel shall  stand  up  for  him.  And  for  those  of  his 
blood  and  lineage  who  shall  be  found  written  in  Je- 
hovah's book  shall  come  a  deliverance  from  all  disa- 
bilities, of  which  there  shall  be  no  more  forfeiture  for 
ever.  For  "Thus  saith  the  Lord  God;  Behold,  I 
will  take  the  children  of  Israel  from  among  the  na- 
tions, whither  they  be  gone,  and  will  gather  them  on 
every  side,  and  bring  them  into  their  own  land :  and 
I  will  make  them  one  nation  in  the  land  upon  the 
mountains  of  Israel ;  and  one  king  shall  be  king  to 
them  all :  and  they  shall  be  no  more  two  nations, 
neither  shall  they  be  divided  into  two  kingdoms  any 
more  at  all :  neither  shall  they  defile  themselves  any 
more  with  their  idols,  nor  with  their  detestable  things, 
nor  with  any  of  their  transgressions:  but  I  will  save 
them  out  of  all  their  dwelling-places,  wherein  they 
have  sinned,  and  will  cleanse  them  :  so  shall  they  be 
my  people,  and  I  will  be  their  God.  And  David  my 
servant  shall  be  king  over  them ;  and  they  shall  have 
one  shepherd  :  they  also  shall  walk  in  my  judgments, 
and   observe   my   statutes,  and  do  them.     And   they 


316  VOICES  FRO 31  BABYLON. 

shall  dwell  in  the  land  that  I  have  given  unto  Jacob 
my  servant,  wherein  your  fathers  have  dwelt;  and 
they  shall  dwell  therein,  even  they,  and  their  chil- 
dren, and  their  children's  children  forever:  and  my 
servant  David  shall  be  their  prince  for  ever.  More- 
over, I  will  make  a  covenant  of  peace  with  them  ;  it 
shall  be  an  everlasting  covenant  with  them :  and  I 
will  place  them,  and  multiply  them,  and  will  set  my 
sanctuary  in  the  midst  of  them  for  evermore.  My 
tabernacle  also  shall  be  with  them  :  yea,  I  will  be 
their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people.  And  the 
nations  shall  know  that  I  do  sanctify  Israel,  when 
my  sanctuary  shall  be  in  the  midst  of  them  for  ever- 
more.'' Ezek.  XXX vii.  21-28. 

A  mighty  sea  of  ills  and  judgments,  tears  and  rec- 
ompenses for  sin,  still  lies  between  Israel  and  that 
continent  of  peace  and  glory.  God  hath  an  account 
of  indignation  against  that  people  for  their  impieties, 
which  must  first  expend  itself  upon  them  and  be  paid 
oif  to  the  last.  ^'  Zion  shall  be  redeemed  with  judg- 
ment, and  those  of  her  that  return  with  righteous  vis- 
itations." God  will  put  them  in  the  crucible,  and  sit 
as  a  refiner  and  purifier  of  silver,  to  purify  the  sons 
of  Levi  and  purge  them  as  gold  and  silver,  that  they 
may  offer  unto  Jehovah  an  offering  in  righteousness. 
By  the  fires  of  unexampled  trial  He  will  purge  away 
their  dross  and  take  away  all  their  tin,  that  He  may 
restore  their  judges  as  at  the  first,  and  their  counsel- 
lors as  at  the  beginning,  and  realize  the  complete  ful- 
filment of  all  for  which  the  angel  said  the  seventy 
sevens  have  been  divided  out  upon  that  race.  Chap. 


THE  FINAL  OUTCOME.  317 

ix.  24.  At  tliirty  days,  or  at  most  seventy-five  clays, 
from  the  fall  of  the  Antichrist,  all  that  blessedness 
will  have  been  reached.  The  consummation  shall 
have  come  for  Israel. 

III.  Note  now,  in  the  third  place,  that  the  time 
of  the  Antichrist  is  also  a  time  of  blessed  resurrec- 
tions. It  is  sometimes  supposed  that  the  ancient 
people  of  God  knew  little  or  nothing  about  the  res- 
urrection of  the  body,  but  this  is  a  great  mistake. 
Paul  says  that  the  Jews  of  his  time  allowed  that 
there  should  be  a  resurrection  of  the  dead,  both  of 
the  just  and  of  the  imjust.  He  declared  before 
Agri})])a  that  it  was  the  great  hope  in  all  the  inces- 
sant services  of  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel  to  attain 
to  the  resurrection  of  the  just.  He  also  affirmed  of 
some  who  suffered  for  the  faith  in  former  ages  that 
they  refused  deliverance  from  torture,  "  that  they 
might  obtain  a  better  resurrection.'^  All  through 
tlie  Old  Testament  the  references  are  numerous  and 
plain  touching  the  rising  up  again  of  those  who  have 
fallen  under  the  power  of  death  and  tlie  grave.  And 
here  the  voice  comes  to  us  from  Babylon,  attested  by 
the  angel  of  God  through  Daniel  the  prophet,  that 
in  the  same  period  in  which  the  Antichrist  shall  be 
revealed,  "  many  of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of 
the  earth  shall  awake."  It  is  not  a  figurative  resur- 
rection that  is  spoken  of,  for  it  is  "  to  everlasting 
life."  It  is  not  a  spiritual  resurrection,  but  a  resur- 
rection of  bodies,  for  spirits  are  not  slee})ers  in  dust 
of  the  earth.  It  is  not  a  general  or  universal  resur- 
rection, but  eclectic  and  particular,  for  it  is  predicated 


318  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

only  of  '^  many  " — many  o/,  or  many  from  among — 
leaving  others  of  whom  it  is  not  predicated.  This 
"  many,''  as  Rabbi  Saadiah  says,  are  the  few,  the 
lesser  nnmber,  as  where  it  is  said  "  many  brought 
gifts,"  "  many  of  the  people  of  the  land  became 
Jews,''  "  many  will  entreat  the  favor  of  the  prince." 
It  seems  to  be  implied  in  the  passage  that  all  the 
dead  shall  rise  again  in  some  form,  at  some  day,  but 
that  at  first  only  a  portion  of  the  sleepers  in  the  dust 
shall  awake.  So  in  the  first  Psalm,  though  the  wick- 
ed are  to  rise  in  their  time,  they  do  not  rise  or  stand 
up  in  judgment  with  the  congregation  of  the  right- 
eous. So  also  in  the  Apocalypse  (xx.)  there  is  a 
''  first  resurrection,"  consisting  of  those  who  are  to 
be  priests  of  God  and  of  Christ,  and  over  whom  the 
second  death  has  no  power;  whilst  ''the  rest  of  the 
dead  live  not  again  until  the  thousand  years  are  fin- 
ished." Hence  some  of  the  very  best  Hebraists  here 
translate,  "  And  many  from  among  the  sleepers  in 
the  dust  of  the  earth  shall  awake;  these  [the  many 
who  awake]  unto  everlasting  life ;  but  those  [the  rest 
of  the  sleepers,  who  awake  only  at  some  other  time] 
unto  shame  and  everlasting  abhorring."  But  whether 
this  be  the  precise  sense  or  not,  the  words  assert  a 
bodily  resurrection  of  many  asleep  in  tlie  ground,  to 
whom  this  awaking  is  a  high  and  blessed  distinction. 
If  it  does  not  precede  the  resurrection  of  the  wicked 
in  point  of  time,  as  I  am  persuaded  that  it  does,  it 
certainly  differs  from  and  exceeds  it  in  character; 
for  it  is  to  everlasting  life,  whilst  the  other  is  to 
everlasting  dishonor,  abhorring  and  contempt. 


THE  FINAL  OUTCOME.  319 

Great  and  awful  has  been  the  reign  of  death ! 
Who  can  tell  the  associations  of  grief  and  pain,  of 
dismay  and  agony,  of  streaming  tears  and  broken 
hearts,  of  blasted  hopes  and  ruined  phms,  of  speech- 
less misery  and  shattered  reason,  of  desolate  homes 
and  bleeding  affections,  of  darkness,  misery  and 
gloom,  which  throng  around  that  chilling  word — 
death  f 

Everywhere  and  in  everything  is  death — resist- 
less, gloomy,  all-levelling  death.  Its  subjects  mingle 
with  the  soil  of  every  clime  and  crowd  the  hidden 
depths  of  every  sea.  Nearly  two  hundred  genera- 
tions, with  all  their  power,  have  gone  down  under 
its  dark  dominion,  without  a  single  representative 
left.  And  every  tick  of  the  clock,  through  all  the 
hours  and  days  and  nights  and  weeks  and  months 
and  years,  without  cessation,  is  the  death-knell  of 
scores  of  mortals,  swept  from  friends  and  homes  to 
the  silent  world  of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of 
the  earth. 

But  those  sleeping  myriads  shall  not  sleep  for  ever. 
There  yet  shall  come  a  trumpet-voice  before  which 
even  death  shall  cower  and  all  his  bands  dissolve. 
Rocky  vaults  and  sepulchres,  though  sealed  for  ages 
and  to  the  living  lost,  and  all  the  deep  incisions  in 
''  God's  Acre,"  and  all  the  hidden  places  whither  the 
dead  have  been  borne  or  laid  away  by  loving  hands, 
shall  open  to  set  their  tenants  free.  All  the  dingy 
doors  of  the  grave  shall  be  lifted  from  their  hinges, 
and  all  within  be  called  to  bid  farewell  for  ever  to 
all   the  mould  and  dampness  of  that  sombre  realm. 


320  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

For  thus  saitli  the  holy  apostle :  '^  I  would  not  have 
you  to  be  iguorantj  brethren,  concerning  them  which 
are  asleej),  that  ye  sorrow  not,  even  as  others  which 
have  no  hope.  For  if  we  believe  that  Jesus  died 
and  rose  again,  even  so  them  also  which  sleep  in 
Jesus  will  God  bring  with  Him.  .  .  .  For  the  Lord 
himself  shall  descend  from  heaven  with  a  shout,  with 
the  voice  of  the  archangel,  and  the  trump  of  God  : 
and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first :  then  ^ye  which 
are  alive  and  remain  shall  be  caught  up  together 
with  them  in  the  clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the 
air :  and  so  shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord.  Where- 
fore comfort  one  another  with  these  words."  1  Thess. 
iv.  13-18. 

Yea,  and  even  before  the  Antichrist  shall  enact  the 
wickednesses  which  bring  the  miseries  of  the  great 
tribulation,  this  grand  awakening  and  translation  of 
the  saints  shall  begin.  Many,  by  reason  of  their  un- 
watchfulness  and  unreadiness,  will  be  obliged  to  lin- 
ger in  the  world  with  the  wicked  and  the  unbeliev- 
ing, and  feel  something  of  the  woes  of  that  time  of 
trouble,  till  they  have  healed  their  deficiencies,  washed 
their  flesh-stained  robes  and  made  them  white  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb.  Rev.  vii.  9-17.  But  there  are 
some  to  whom  the  Saviour's  promise  is,  "  Because 
thou  hast  kept  the  word  of  my  ])atience,  I  also 
will  keep  thee  from  that  hour  of  trial,  which  shall 
come  upon  all  the  world."  lie  v.  iii.  10.  When  He 
was  yet  on  earth  He  left  command  with  promise : 
"  Watch,  and  pray  always,  that  ye  may  be  accounted 
worthy  to  escape  all  these  things  that  shall  come  to 


THE  FINAL  OUTCOME.  321 

pass,  and  to  stand  before  the  Son  of  man."  Luke  xxi. 
36.  That  which  hinders  the  revelation  of  the  Anti- 
christ is  the  presence  of  Christ's  true  Church,  in 
whom  is  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  for  whose 
sake  and  in  answer  to  whose  prayers  Jehovah's  prov- 
idence is  so  ordered  as  to  restrain  the  violence  of 
Satan  and  the  wrath  of  the  wicked.  It  is  only  when 
this  Hinderer  is  taken  away  that  "  that  Wicked 
[One]  shall  be  revealed."  2  fhess.  ii.  7,  8.  And  if 
we  ask  in  what  manner  that  taking  away  is  to  be 
effected,  the  answer  is  given  by  the  Saviour  himself: 
"  In  that  night  there  shall  be  two  in  one  bed  ;  the 
one  shall  be  taken,  and  the  other  shall  be  left.  Two 
women  shall  be  grinding  together ;  the  one  shall  be 
taken,  and  the  other  left.  Two  men  shall  be  in  the 
field  :  the  one  shall  be  taken  and  the  other  left." 
And  when  the  listening  disciples  asked  whither  these 
should  be  taken,  the  answer  was  :  "Wheresoever  the 
body  is,  thither  w^ill  the  eagles  be  gathered  together;" 
that  is,  to  Christ,  on  whose  slain  body  the  saints  are 
nourished,  and  who  will  then  be  in  the  heavenly 
spaces  where  Paul  says  His  people  are  to  meet 
Him.  Luke  xvii.  34-37. 

IV.  Note  also,  in  the  fourth  place,  that  then  shall 
men  receive  their  eternal  re\vards.  The  word  of  the 
angel  is,  "They  that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  bright- 
ness of  the  firmament,  and  they  that  turn  many  to 
righteousness,  as  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever."  We 
are  now  in  the  mere  vestibule  of  our  beino:.  There 
is  another  and  an  eternal  life  to  which  it  leads. 
That  life  is  not  a  mere  spirit-life,  but  a  resurrection- 

21 


322  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

life — a  life  which  succeeds  the  sleep  in  the  dust  of 
the  earth.  The  bringing  up  again  of  our  fallen 
bodies,  or  a  mighty  change  equivalent  to  it,  must 
first  occur,  before  the  sons  of  God  enter  upon  tlieir 
glories.  Daniel  was  to  go  his  way  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  earthly  duty  and  experience,  and  peace- 
fully rest  in  his  grave  till  "the  end"  should  come, 
and  only  "  at  the  end  of  the  days  "  was  he  to  stand 
in  his  lot,  or  be  raised  up  to  enjoy  his  portion.  So 
Paul,  at  the  end  of  his  race,  wrote  to  his  son  Tim- 
othy :  "  I  am  now  ready  to  be  offered,  and  the  time 
of  my  departure  is  at  hand.  I  have  fought  a  good 
fight,  I  have  finished  my  course,  I  have  kept  the 
faith :  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown 
of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous 
Judge,  shall  give  me  at  that  day."  1  Tim.  iv.  6-8. 
It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  Christians,  when  they 
die,  enter  at  once  upon  their  final  places  and  rewards. 
Those  rewards  and  places  are  not  yet  ready  for  them, 
nor  will  they  be  till  Christ  comes  again  in  the  glory 
of  His  manifested  kingdom  ;  neither  are  they  yet 
ready  for  those  rewards.  The  souls  of  departed  saints 
whilst  in  the  disembodied  state,  though  at  rest  in 
paradise  and  in  conscious  blessedness,  are  not  in  the 
exercise  of  the  full  functions  of  life,  for  which  the 
presence  of  the  body  is  necessary.  Hence  the  su- 
preme importance  of  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection 
of  the  body  in  all  proper  presentations  of  the  Chris- 
tian system.  Everything  waits  for  and  depends  on 
"  the  redemption  of  our  body "  (Rom.  viii.  23), 
which   does   not   occur   till   Christ  is    ready   to  take 


THE  FINAL  OUTCOME.  323 

to  himself  His  great  power  and  reign.  Hence  Peter 
writes  to  the  suifering  saints:  "When  the  chief 
Sheplierd  shall  appear,  ye  shall  receive  a  crown  of 
glory  that  fadeth  not  away."  1  Pet.  v.  4.  If  there 
were  to  be  any  crowning  of  the  saints  prior  to  that 
time,  he  would  have  said  so.  But  when  Christ  who 
is  our  life  shall  appear,  then  shall  we  also  appear 
with  Him  in  glory.  And  great  shall  be  the  portion 
of  the  true  and  faithful. 

Very  little  is  said  of  the  final  destiny  of  the  wicked. 
It  is  not  important  that  we  should  know  much  on  that 
subject.  And  blessed  will  those  be  who  never  find 
out  what  it  will  be.  A  few  words  tell  the  story 
with  sufficient  ampleness.  They  also  are  to  be 
brought  up  again  from  their  sleep  in  the  dust  of 
the  earth,  but  their  resurrection  will  be  a  disgrace, 
not  a  glorification,  and  all  the  eternity  of  their  being 
will  be  an  abhorrence  and  contempt.  On  the  other 
hand,  how  bright  and  cheering  is  the  imagery  which 
sets  forth  the  destiny  of  the  good  and  faithful  ! 

Contemplate  the  pure  blue  sky  which  arches  over 
us,  and  has  bent  its  fair  circle  round  our  world  ever 
since  man  was  made.  How  beautiful  in  the  rosy 
dawn  of  morning,  lit  up  with  the  joys  of  incoming 
day  and  s])reading  out  its  arms  of  welcome  to  tiie 
rising  king  of  light !  How  sublime  at  high  noon, 
flooded  with  brightness  from  horizon  to  horizon,  and 
lifted  up  like  some  great  celestial  dome  whose  arches 
seem  to  spring  from  eternity  to  eternity  to  make  a 
tabernacle  for  the  sun  !  How  serenely  sweet  at  sun- 
set, spread  out  like  an  inverted  sea  of  liquid  glass 


324  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

and  gold,  tinging  all  the  earth  with  the  mellow  radi- 
ance of  its  glory!  How  unspeakably  charming  and 
solemn  in  the  silent  midnight,  looking  like  the  ap- 
parition of  some  vast  supernal  city  with  its  myriad 
lamps  lit  and  twinkling  with  immortal  fires  !  Could 
anything  be  more  excellent,  more  beautiful,  more 
cheering,  more  perfect?  Six  thousand  years  has  it 
thus  stood.  Clouds  have  many  a  time  overspread  its 
face,  but  they  have  not  dimmed  it.  The  fumes  and 
smoke  and  dust  of  earth's  cities,  battles  and  commo- 
tions again  and  again  have  risen  against  it,  but  it  is 
still  untarnished.  Ages  on  ages  have  snowed  their 
years  upon  it,  but  not  a  wrinkle,  not  a  mark  of  decay, 
have  they  there  produced.  Storms  on  storms  have 
driven  over  it  with  their  fury  and  thunder,  but  they 
have  not  rent  it.  Changes  on  changes  have  worked 
their  way  into  everything  else,  but  no  alterations 
have  they  wrought  in  this.  It  bends  over  us  at 
this  hour  as  beautiful,  benignant  and  blessed  as  when 
God  looked  upon  it  at  the  first  and  said  it  was  "  very 
good."  And  such  and  so  glorious  is  to  be  the  portion 
of  the  wise.  "  They  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the 
firmament^  Like  it,  their  home  shall  be  on  high. 
Like  it,  they  shall  be  incorruptible,  peaceful,  beau- 
tiful, perfect,  as  if  they  had  always  been  sons  of  the 
sky.  Like  it,  their  cheering,  enlightening  and  be- 
nignant glory  shall  envelop  the  earth  with  blessed- 
ness from  age  to  age  for  ever.  Every  faithful  man 
of  God  is  a  child  of  light.  Jesus  pronounces  His 
people  "the  light  of  the  world.''  In  this  life  their 
light  is  often  dim.     Shadows,  clouds,  crags  and  hills 


THE  FINAL  OUTCOME.  325 

frequently  intercept  its  radiance,  and  sometimes  the 
flame  burns  low,  as  if  ready  to  expire.  But  this  dull 
twilight  is  the  herald  of  a  coming  noon,  when  all  ob- 
structions shall  be  surmounted,  and  all  obscurations 
left  far  beneath,  whilst  the  ethereal  glow  of  heaven- 
ly brightness  pours  out  its  flood  of  peaceful  splendors 
in  an  everlasting  flow ! 

Contemplate,  again,  those  sparkling  lights  which 
shine  like  polished  gems  in  the  canopy  above  us. 
How  beautiful  their  light  and  the  sublimity  and  va- 
riety of  their  glory  !  How  they  attract  our  eyes,  and 
seem  to  kindle  corresponding  fires  in  our  hearts !  How 
we  are  drawn  and  charmed  by  them  as  the  crown-jewels 
of  the  universe  !  And  thus  have  they  been  blazing  in 
the  smiles  of  God  for  all  these  many,  many  ages.  The 
flowers  wither,  the  rainbow  fades,  but  these  never  lose 
their  immortal  beauty,  and  abide  as  fresh  and  glorious 
as  when  they  sang  together  the  great  birth-hymn  of 
the  world.  They  change  their  places,  but  they  never 
cease  their  shining  nor  ever  lay  aside  their  glory.  No 
convulsions  can  ever  disturb  the  eternal  calm  of  their 
beauty.  Even  when  ''  the  powers  of  the  heavens  shall 
be  shaken  "  their  serene  magnificence  will  abide  un- 
harmed, their  brightness  undiminished,  their  splendor 
sempiternal.  And  so  they  that  turn  many  to  right- 
eousness shall  shine,  even  "  as  the  stars  for  ever  and 
everT  The  men  and  women  who  have  been  God's 
light-bearers  in  a  world  of  darkness  shall  be  His 
lights  eternally.  The  fame  and  glory  of  apostles 
and  prophets,  evangelists  and  martyrs,  reformers  and 
confessors,  and  the  honor  of  those  who  hav^e  stood, 


326  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

labored  and  suffered  for  the  truth  of  God  in  every 
age,  shall  never  wane,  never  pass  away.  All  the 
mysterious  changes  of  the  day  of  judgment  will 
only  increase  their  exaltation  and  make  their  names 
the  more  illustrious.  Every  minister,  missionary, 
teacher  and  instrument  of  the  enlightenment  and 
salvation  of  the  benighted  and  the  lost,  if  faithful 
on  earth,  is  to  have  eternal  place  in  heaven,  lumi- 
nous as  the  stars  and  for  ever  beyond  all  the  vicis- 
situdes, defilements,  disasters  or  accidents  of  time. 
Oh,  the  glory,  the  sublimity,  the  untold  dignities 
and  honors  to  be  inherited  by  the  humble  and  self- 
denying  teachers  of  salvation  !  To  be  set  by  God's 
own  hand  in  God's  own  heavens !  to  shine  as  ever- 
lasting stars !  to  sparkle  as  illustrious  gems  in  the 
firmament  of  Jehovah's  power !  to  be  the  glory- 
bearers  of  His  eternal  excellency  !  to  shine  His 
radiance  through  celestial  spaces !  to  be  God's  im- 
perishable lights  for  heaven  itself.  His  stars  for  ever 
and  ever!  What  a  portion  to  be  put  within  the 
reach  of  poor  feeble  children  of  the  earth !  How 
the  objects  of  this  world's  ambition  dwindle  and 
shrink  in  comparison  !  What  toils,  what  sufferings, 
what  sacrifices  of  self  is  it  not  worth  !  What  is 
all  the  joy,  comfort,  honor,  wealth  and  glory  that 
can  possibly  be  crowded  into  this  brief  earthly  life 
which  it  would  not  be  a  blessed  privilege  to  lay  down 
for  such  a  destiny !  To  be  but  a  fragment,  a  jot,  a 
particle  of  the  firmament  of  God  is  a  glory  fit  to  be 
purchased  at  any  price;  but  to  be  its  eternal  stars, 
the  very  jewels  of  the  realm  of  light,  the  objects  of 


THE  FINAL  OUTCOME.  327 

undying  interest  and  admiration  in  supernal  worlds — 
here  is  a  wealth  of  magnificence  by  the  side  of  which 
all  other  greatness  is  as  nothing ! 

Nor  are  the  conditions  hard  on  which  these  sublim- 
ities of  human  destiny  depend.  True,  a  genuine  wis- 
dom is  reqtiired.  It  is  '^the  wise,^^  only  the  wise,  who 
are  thus  to  shine.  There  is  much  that  passes  for  wis- 
dom which  is  not  such  in  reality.  Men  call  those 
wise  who  are  skilled  in  physical  science,  worldly 
philosophy,  politics,  law,  finances,  trade  and  human 
erudition ;  but  if  this  be  all,  even  the  wisest  need  to 
become  "  fools,"  that  they  may  be  wise.  Knowledge 
is  not  wisdom,  especially  if  it  be  mere  secular  know- 
ledge. Knowledge  is  only  one  of  the  tools  of  wis- 
dom, and  all  thinking  or  enlightenment  which  con- 
cerns itself  only  with  earthly  interests,  gains,  progress 
and  comfort  fails  of  true  wisdom.  People  may  know 
much,  and  make  themselves  very  familiar  even  with 
God's  works  and  attributes,  and  still  be  in  utter  soul- 
ignorance.  Wisdom  is  the  heart's  knowledge  of  God 
himself.  ^^  Behold,  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  that  is  wis- 
dom :  and  to  depart  from  evil  is  understanding."  To 
be  ^' wise"  we  must  give  up  sin  and  self,  and  learn  to 
fear,  love  and  trust  in  God  above  all  things.  No  man 
is  wise  who  settles  his  confidence  on  what  must  perish. 
No  man  is  wise  who  has  made  no  provision  for  eter- 
nity. No  man  is  wise  who  puts  the  Lord  his  Maker 
out  of  his  calculations,  or  fails  to  award  Him  His 
rightful  place  and  authority  in  the  universe.  True 
wisdom  and  eternal  life  is  this :  to  know  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  He   hath  sent.     And  to  this  wis- 


328  ^VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

dom  only  is  eternal  glory  linked.  This  wisdom  God 
also  wills  that  we  should  have,  and  has  arranged 
every  facility  for  us  to  acquire.  He  hath  spoken 
that  we  may  learn  of  Him,  drink  in  His  light,  and 
by  fellowship  with  His  Sj^irit  become  like  Moses  on 
the  mount,  like  Stephen  in  his  dying  mo*nents,  yea, 
like  Christ  in  His  transfiguration,  illuminated  with 
celestial  radiance  and  brightened  with  the  glory  that 
shall  never  fade.  He  desires  that  all  men  should 
turn  with  all  their  heart  to  Him  and  His  saving  truth 
in  Christ  Jesus,  and,  having  turned,  to  exert  them- 
selves to  turn  others  also.  He  expects  all  whom  He 
has  called  and  redeemed  to  take  active  part  in  bring- 
ing the  erring  and  lost  to  the  same  light  and  salvation. 
And  where  this  wisdom  and  devotion  are,  there  the 
glories  of  which  the  angel  speaks  will  surely  follow. 
Ah,  yes,  dear  friends,  as  we  live  and  labor  in  this 
world,  so  shall  be  our  eternal  future.  The  life  to 
come  will  be  good  and  glorious  or  evil  and  disgrace- 
ful just  as  our  present  lives  are  fashioned  to  the  truth 
or  turned  away  from  it.  As  we  now  direct  ourselves, 
we  determine  the  complexion  of  our  eternity.  By  the 
deeds  we  here  perform  we  lay  the  outlines  and  draw 
the  features  of  that  body  which  we  shall  for  ever  wear. 
Just  as  we  shape  our  behavior  on  earth  we  prepare 
germs  for  our  graves  which  i\\Q  resurrection  will  de- 
velop into  the  brightness  of  the  firmament  and  into 
the  glory  of  the  everlasting  stars,  or  into  that  which 
shall  be  to  us  and  all  beings  an  unmitigated  and 
unending  abhorrence.  Oh,  mighty  and  momentous 
thought!      How  should    it  search  and   awaken  our 


THE  FINAL  OUTCOME.  329 

souls !  Take  it  with  you,  and,  as  you  value  immor- 
tal blessedness,  never  suffer  it  to  be  forgotten.  And 
may  that  God  who  hath  revealed  these  stupendous 
wonders  make  it  a  living  truth  in  every  heart,  to  shape 
and  guide  us  in  all  the  activities  of  this  life,  that, 
with  the  holy  Daniel,  we  may  each  stand  in  our  lot 
at  the  end  of  the  days  ! 

And  now,  ^'  unto  Him  that  loved  us,  and  washed 
us  from  our  sins  in  His  own  blood,  and  hath  made 
us  kings  and  priests  unto  God  and  His  Father;  to 
Him  be  glory  and  dominion  for  ever  and  ever. 
Amen." 


It  will  be  order  then, 

Under  the  sceptre  of  a  holy  King, 
Each  creature,  low  and  high,  angels  and  men, 

To  the  great  concord  sweetly  ministering. 
Self-will  unknown,  true  harmony  restored, 
Happy  obedience  to  the  righteous  Lord  ; 
The  multitude  of  wills  all  lost  in  One — 
The  Will  that  rules  from  the  eternal  throne ; 
Disorders,  strifes,  confusions,  groans  and  cries 
Then  ended  in  the  endless  harmonies. 
330 


A  CRITICALLY-REVISED  TRANSLATION 

OF    THE 

BOOK  OF  DANIEL. 


CHAPTER   I. 


In  the  third  year  of  the  reign  of  Jehoiakim,  king 
of  Judah,  came^  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon, 
to  Jerusalem  and  besieged  it.  (2)  And  the  Lord 
gave  Jehoiakim,  king  of  Judah,  into  his  hand,  and 
a  part  of  the  vessels  of  the  house  of  God  ;  and  he 
brought  them^  to  the  land  of  Shinar,  to  the  house 
of  his  god;  and  he  brought  the  vessels  into  the 
treasure-house  of  his  god. 

(3)  And  the  king  commanded  Ashpenaz,  the  chief 
of  his  eunuchs,^  that  he  should  bring  of  the  sons  of 
Israel,  both  of  the  royal  seed  and  of  the  nobles,  (4) 
kids,  in  whom  was  no  blemish,  and  of  good  appear- 
ance, and  apt  in  all  wisdom,  and  quick  in  knowledge, 
and  ready  of  understanding,  and  who  have  ability  in 
them  to  stand  *  in  the  palace  of  the  king ;  and  that  he 
should  teach  them  the  learning  and  the  language  of 

1  came,— so  Hdvernick,  Uwald,  Stuart,  Hitzig  and  Hofmnnn ; 
marched, — Kranichfeld,  Keil  and  Hengstenherg. 

2  them — i.  e.  the  vessels, — Keil,  Stuart;  including  Jehoiakim, — 
Hifzig,  Kranichfeld.  3  ^^  courtiers.  Ho  serve. 

331 


332  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

the  Chaldeans.  (5)  And  the  king  allotted  to  thera  a 
daily  portion  of  the  dainties  of  the  king,  and  of  the 
wine  of  his  drinking,  that  he  might  nourish  them 
three  years,  and  that  at  the  end  thereof  they  might 
stand  before  the  king.  (6)  Now  among  them  were 
of  the  sons  of  Judah,  Daniel,  Hananiah,  Mishael,  and 
Azariah.  (7)  And  the  prince  of  the  eunuchs  gave 
names  to  them;  and  he  gave  to  Daniel  the  name  of 
Belteshazzar ;  and  to  Hananiah,  of  Shadrach ;  and 
to  Mishael,  of  Meshach  ;  and  to  Azariah,  of  Abed- 
nego.^ 

(8)  And  Daniel  purposed  in  his  heart  that  he  would 
not  defile  himself  with  the  dainties  of  the  king,  and 
with  wine  of  his  drinking ;  and  he  entreated  of  the 
prince  of  the  eunuchs,  that  he  might  not  defile  him- 
self. (9)  And  God  gave  Daniel  fa^^or  and  tender  re- 
gard in  the  sight  of  the  prince  of  the  eunuchs.  (10) 
And  the  prince  of  the  eunuchs  said  to  Daniel,  I  fear 
my  lord,  the  king,  who  hath  appointed  your  food  and 
your  drink  ;  for  why  should  he  see  your  faces  more 
sad  than  those  of  the  lads  who  are  of  your  age,  and 
why  would  ye  endanger  my  head  to  the  king?  (11) 
And  Daniel  said  to  the  Melzar,*^  whom  the  prince  of 
the  eunuchs  had  set  over  Daniel,  Hananiah,  Mishael, 
and  Azariah,  (12)  f  rove  thy  servants,  I  beseech  thee, 
ten  days ;  and  let  them  give  us  of  the  vegetables ''  that 
we  may  eat,  and  water  that  we  may  drink.  (13)  And 
let  our  countenance  be  looked  upon  before  thee,  and 
the  countenance  of  the  lads  that  eat  the  dainties  of 

5  Ahed-neho, —Uitzig,  Keil,  Lenormant,  Fuller. 

6  overseer  or  steward.       "^  seeds,  such  as  peas,  beans,  and  the  like. 


THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL.  333 

the  king ;  and  as  thou  shalt  see,  deal  with  thy  ser- 
vants. (14)  And  he  hearkened  to  them  in  this 
matter,  and  proved  them  ten  days.  (15)  And  at  the 
end  of  ten  days,  their  countenance  appeared  fairer  and 
fatter  in  flesh,  than  all  the  lads  that  did  eat  the  dainties 
of  the  king.  (16)  And  the  Melzar  took  away  their 
dainties  and  the  wine  of  their  drinking,  and  gave  them 
vegetables.  (17)  And  as  for  these  four  lads,  God  gave 
to  them  knowledge  and  skill  in  all  learning  and  wis- 
dom ;  and  Daniel  had  understanding  in  all  visions  and 
dreams.  (18)  And  at  the  end  of  the  days,  when  the 
king  had  said  he  should  bring  them  in,  the  prince  of 
the  eunuchs  brought  them  in  before  Nebuchadnezzar. 
(19)  And  the  Mng  conversed  with  them;  and  among 
them  all  was  found  none  like  Daniel,  Hananiah,  Mish- 
ael,  and  Azariah ;  and  they  stood  before  the  king.  (20) 
And  in  every  matter  of  wise  understanding  concerning 
which  the  king  inquired  of  them,  he  found  them  ten 
times  better  than  all  the  scribes  and  enchanters  that 
were  in  all  his  kingdom.  (21)  And  Daniel  continued 
unto  the  first  year  of  Cyrus  the  king. 


CHAPTER   II. 

And  in  the  second  year^  of  the  reign  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar  dreamed  dreams,  and  his 
spirit  was  troubled,  and  his  sleep  failed  him.  (2) 
And  the  king  commanded  to  summon  the  scribes  and 
the  enchanters,  and  the  sorcerers  and  the  Chaldeans, 
that  they  might  show  the  king  his  dreams;  and  they 

1  second  year,  but  also  the  fourth.     See  Exposition,  pp.  3G,  37. 


334  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

came  and  stood  before  the  king.  (3)  And  the  king 
said  unto  them,  I  have  dreamed  a  dream,  and  my 
spirit  is  troubled  to  know  the  dream.  (4)  And  the 
Chaldeans  said  to  the  king  in  Aramaean,^  O  king, 
live  for  ever,  tell  thy  servants  the  dream,  and  we 
will  declare  the  interpretation.  (5)  The  king  an- 
swered and  said  to  the  Chaldeans,  The  decree  is 
made  known ^  by  me;  if  ye  will  not  make  known 
unto  me  the  dream  and  the  interpretation  thereof, 
ye  shall  be  cut  to  pieces  and  your  houses  shall  be 
made  a  dunghill.  (6)  But  if  ye  declare  the  dream 
and  the  interpretation  thereof,  ye  shall  receive  from 
me  gifts,  riches,  and  great  honor ;  therefore  declare 
the  dream  and  the  interpretation  thei'^of.  (7)  They 
answered  a  second  time  and  said.  Let  the  king  tell 
his  servants  the  dream,  and  we  will  declare  the  in- 
terpretation. (8)  The  king  answered  and  said,  I 
know  of  a  truth  that  ye  would  gain  time,  wholly 
because  ye  see  the  decree  is  made  known  by  me. 
(9)  Which  dream,  if  ye  will  not  make  known  unto 
me,  one  decree  ^  is  for  you ;  for  ye  have  prepared 
lying  and  corrupt  words  to  speak  before  me,  till  the 
time  be  changed ;  therefore  tell  me  the  dream,  and 
I  shall  know  that  ye  can  declare  the  interpretation 

2  The  language  here  changes  from  Hebrew  to  Aramsean,  which 
continues  to  the  end  of  chapter  vii. 

■^  made  known,  published, — Kranichfeld,  Zockler,  Kliefoth,  Keil ; 
The  word  has  gone  out, — Gesenius,  Hdvernick,  Lengerke,  De  Wette, 
Stuart;  The  matter  is  gone  from  nie, —  Theodotion,  Vulgate,  Luther, 
Bertholdt ;  The  word  from  me  stands  firm, — Fcshiio,  Aben  Ezra, 
Saadiah,  Winer,  Llengstenberg. 

*  decree,  sentence, —  Vulgate,  Luther,  Zockler,  Keil,  Gesenius;  one 
thing  is  your  purpose, —  Theodotion,  Lengerke,  Hitzig,  Stuart,  3Iaurer. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  335 

thereof.  (10)  The  Chaldeans  answered  before  the 
king,  and  said,  There  is  not  a  man  upon  the  earth, 
who  is  able  to  declare  the  matter  of  the  king ;  be- 
cause^ no  great  and  powerful  king  has  asked  a  thing 
like  this  of  any  scribe,  enchanter,  or  Chaldean. 
(11)  And  the  thing  which  the  king  asks  is  weighty,^ 
and  there  is  none  other  who  can  declare  it  before 
the  king,  except  the  gods,  whose  dwelling  is  not 
with  flesh.  (12)  Because  of  this  the  king  was  angry 
and  exceedingly  wroth ;  and  commanded  to  destroy 
all  the  wise  men  of  Babylon.  (13)  And  the  decree 
went  forth,  that  the  wise  men  should  be  slain  ;  and 
they  sought  Daniel  and  his  companions  to  be  slain. 
(14)  Then  Daniel  answered  with  counsel  and  wis- 
dom to  Arioch,  the  chief  of  the  body-guard  of  the 
king,  who  was  gone  forth  to  slay  the  wise  men  of 
Babylon.  (15)  He  answered  and  said  to  Arioch, 
the  powerful  one  of  the  king.  Why  is  the  decree  so 
urgent^  from  the  king?  Then  Arioch  made  the 
matter  known  to  Daniel.  (16)  Then  Daniel  went  in 
and  besought  the  king  that  he  would  give  him  time, 
and  he  would  declare  the  interpretation  to  the  king. 
(17)  Then  Daniel  went  to  his  house  and  made  the 
matter  known  to  Hananiah,  Mishael,  and  Azariah,  his 
companions ;  (18)  even,  that  they  might  seek  compas- 
sion of  the  God  of  heaven  concerning  this  secret;  that 
they  might  not  destroy  Daniel  and  his  companions 
with  the  rest  of  the  wise  men  of  Babylon.    (19)  Then 

5  because, — so  Zbckler,  Keil,  Stua^'f,  Driver  ;  wherefore, — Gesenius, 
Lengerke.  ^  weighty,  hard, — Cheyne,  Driver. 

^  harsh, — Cheyne,  Driver. 


336  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

was  the  secret  revealed  unto  Daniel  in  a  vision  of  the 
night ;  then  Daniel  blessed  the  God  of  heaven.  (20) 
Daniel  answered  and  said, 

Blessed  be  the  name  of  God,  from  everlasting  to 
everlasting, 

For  wisdom  and  might  are  his. 

(21)  And   he  it  is  who  changeth  the  times  and  the 

seasons. 
Who  removeth  kings  and  setteth  up  kings, 
Who  giveth  wisdom  to  the  wise 
And  knowledge  to  them  that  know  understanding. 

(22)  He  revealeth  the  deep  and  secret  things ; 
He  knoweth  what  is  in  the  darkness, 
And  the  light  dwelleth  with  him. 

(23)  Thee,  O  God  of  my  fathers,  do  I  thank  and  praise  ; 
For  thou  hast  given  me  wisdom  and  might, 
And  now  thou  hast  made  known  unto  me 

That  which  we  sought  of  thee ; 

For  thou  hast  made  known  unto  us  the  matter  of 
the  king. 
(24)  Therefore  Daniel  went  to  Arioch,  whom  the 
king  had  appointed  to  destroy  the  wise  men  of  Baby- 
lon ;  he  went  and  spake  thus  to  him  :  Destroy  not  the 
wise  men  of  Babylon  ;  bring  me  in  before  the  king, 
and  I  will  declare  unto  the  king  the  interpretation. 
(25)  Then  Arioch  brought  Daniel  before  the  king  in 
haste,  and  thus  spake  to  him,  I  have  found  a  man  of 
the  sons  of  the  captivity  of  Judah,  who  will  make 
known  unto  the  king  the  interpretation.  (26)  The 
king  answered  and  said  to  Daniel,  whose  name  was 
Belteshazzar,  Art  thou  able  to  make  known  to  me  the 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  337 

dream  which  I  have  seen,  and  the  interpretation  there- 
of? (27)  Daniel  answered  in  the  presence  of  the  king 
and  said,  The  secret  which  the  king  has  asked,  tlie  wise 
men,  the  enchanters,  the  scribes,  the  astrologers,  are 
not  able  to  declare  unto  the  king.  (28)  But  there  is 
a  God  in  heaven,  who  revealeth  secrets,  and  he  hath 
made  known  to  the  king,  Nebuchadnezzar,  what  shall 
be  in  the  latter  days.  Thy  dream,  even  the  visions  of 
thy  head  upon  thy  bed,  was  this.  (29)  As  for  thee,  O 
king,  thy  thoughts  came  up  upon  thy  bed,  what  should 
be  hereafter;  and  He  wdio  revealeth  secrets  hath  made 
known  to  thee  what  shall  be.  (30)  But  as  for  me,  this 
secret  is  revealed  to  me,  not  by  wisdom  which  I  have 
more  than  any  living,  but  that  they  might  make 
known  the  interpretation  of  the  king,  and  that  thou 
mightest  know  the  thoughts  of  thine  heart. 

(31)  Thou,  O  king,  sawest,  and  behold,  a  great  im- 
age stood  before  thee ;  this  image  was  great,  and  its 
brightness  excellent,  and  its  appearance  terrible.  (32) 
This  image — its  head  was  of  pure  gold,  its  breasts  and 
its  arms  of  silver,  its  belly  and  its  thighs  of  brass,  (33) 
its  legs  of  iron,  its  feet  partly  of  iron  and  partly  of 
clay.  (34)  Thou  sawest  until  a  stone  was  cut  out  with- 
out hands,  and  it  smote  the  image  upon  its  feet  of  iron 
and  clay,  and  crushed  them.  (35)  Then  was  crushed 
at  once  the  iron,  the  clay,  the  brass,  the  silver,  and  the 
gold,  and  they  became  like  the  chaff  of  the  summer 
threshing-floors  ;  and  the  wind  carried  them  away, 
and  no  place  was  found  for  them ;  and  the  stone 
which  smote  the  image  became  a  great  mountain 
and  filled    all    the    earth.     (3G)    This  is  the  dream ; 

22 


338  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

and   \vc  will    tell    the    inter])retation    thereof    before 
the  king. 

(37)  Thon,  O  king,  king  of  kings,  to  whom  the 
God  of  heaven  hath  given  the  kingdom,  the  power, 
and  the  strength,  and  the  glory ;  (38)  and  wherever 
the  sons  of  men  dwell,  the  beast  of  the  field  and  the 
fowl  of  the  heavens  hath  he  given  into  thine  hand, 
and  hath  made  thee  to  rule  over  them  all — thou  art 
the  head  of  gold.  (39)  And  after  thee  shall  arise  an- 
other kingdom  inferior  to  thee,  and  another,  a  third 
kingdom  of  brass,  which  shall  rule  over  all  the  earth. 
(40)  And  the  fourth  kingdom  shall  be  strong  as  iron ; 
as  iron  breaks  in  pieces  and  crushes  everything,  even 
as  iron  which  dashes  in  pieces,  all  these  will  it  crush 
and  bruise.  (41)  And  since  thou  sawest  the  feet  and 
the  toes,  part  of  potter's  clay  and  part  of  iron,  the 
kingdom  shall  be  divided,  and  there  shall  be  in  it  of 
the  firmness  of  iron,  because  thou  sawest  the  iron 
mixed  with  miry  clay.  (42)  And  since  the  toes  of 
the  feet  were  partly  of  iron  and  partly  of  clay,  the 
kingdom  shall  be  partly  strong  and  partly  brittle. 
(43)  Since  thou  sawest  iron  mixed  vvith  miry  clay, 
they  sliall  mingle  themselves  wdth  the  seed  of  men  ; 
but  they  shall  not  cleave  one  to  another,  behold,  even 
as  iron  doth  not  mingle  itself  with  clay.  (44)  And  i^i 
the  days  of  these  kings  the  God  of  heaven  shall  set 
up  a  kingdom  which  shall  never  be  destroyed;  and 
the  kingdom  shall  not  be  left  to  another  people  ;  it 
shall  crush  and  bring  to  an  end  all  these  kingdoms, 
and  it  shall  stand  for  ever.  (45)  Forasmuch  as  thou 
sawest   that  the  stone  was  cut  out  of  the   mountain 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  339 

witliout  liands,  and  that  it  cruslied  tlie  iron,  the  brass, 
the  clay,  the  silver,  and  the  gold,  the  great  God  hath 
made  known  to  the  king  what  shall  be  hereafter;  and 
the  dream  is  certain,  and  the  interpretation  thereof 
faithfnl. 

(46)  Then  the  king,  Nebuchadnezzar,  fell  on  his 
face,  and  worshipped  Daniel,  and  commanded  that 
they  should  offer  an  oblation  and  sweet  odors  unto 
him.  (47)  The  king  answered  Daniel  and  said.  Of 
a  truth  it  is,  that  your  God  is  a  God  of  gods,  and  a 
Lord  of  kings,  and  a  reveal er  of  secrets,  because  thou 
hast  been  able  to  reveal  this  secret.  (48)  Then  the 
king  promoted  Daniel,  and  gave  him  many  great 
gifts,  and  made  him  ruler  over  all  the  province  of 
Babylon,  and  chief  of  the  governors  over  all  the 
wise  men  of  Babylon.  (49)  And  Daniel  requested 
of  the  king,  and  he  appointed  Shadrach,  Meshach, 
and  Abed-nego  over  the  administration  of  the  prov- 
ince of  Babylon ;  and  Daniel  was  in  the  gate  of  the 
king. 

CHAPTER   III. 

Nebuchadnezzar  the  king  made  an  image  of 
gold;  its  height  was  threescore  cubits,  its  breadth, 
six  cubits;  he  set  it  up  in  the  plain  of  Dura,  in  the 
province  of  Babylon.  (2)  And  Nebuchadnezzar  the 
king  sent  to  assemble  the  satraps,  the  governors,  and 
the  pashas,  the  judges,  the  treasurers,  the  counsellors, 
the  lawyers,^  and  all  the  rulers  of  the  provinces,  to 
come  to  the  dedication  of  the  image  which  Nebucliad- 

1  lawyers,— so  Gesenlns,  Davies,  Keil,  Fusey,  Zockler. 


340  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON 

iiezzar  the  king  had  set  up.  (3)  Tlien  the  satraps, 
the  governors,  and  the  pashas,  the  judges,  the  treas- 
urers, the  counsellors,  the  lawyers,  and  all  tlie  rulers 
of  the  provinces,  were  assembled  to  the  dedication  of 
the  inia2:e  whicli  Nebuchadnezzar  the  kinoi:  l^^d  set 
up ;  and  they  stood  before  the  image  which  Nebu- 
chadnezzar had  set  up.  (4)  And  a  herald  cried  with 
might.  To  you  it  is  commanded,  ye  nations,  tribes, 
and  languages,  (5)  at  the  time  that  ye  shall  hear  the 
sound  of  the  horn,  flute,  harp,  sackbut,  psaltery,  sym- 
phony,^ and  all  kinds  of  music,  ye  shall  fall  down 
and  worship  tlie  golden  image  which  Nebuchadnezzar 
the  king  hath  set  up.  (6)  And  whoever  sliall  not  fall 
down  and  worship,  shall  at  the  same  moment  be  cast 
into  the  midst  of  the  furnace  of  burning  fire.  (7) 
Therefore  at  the  time  when  all  the  nations  heard  the 
sound  of  the  horn,  flute,  harp,  sackbut,  psaltery,  and 
all  kinds  of  music,  all  the  nations,  tribes,  and  lan- 
guages fell  down  and  worshipped  tlie  golden  image 
which  Nebuchadnezzar  the  king  had  set  up. 

(8)  Wherefore,  at  the  time,  men  who  were  Chal- 
deans came  near,  and  accused  the  Jews.  (9)  They 
spoke  and  said  to  Nebuchadnezzar  the  king,  O  king, 
live  for  ever.  (10)  Thou,  O  king,  hast  established  a 
decree,  that  every  man  that  shall  hear  the  sound  of 
the  horn,  flute,  harp,  sackbut,  ])saltery,  and  bagpipe, 
and  all  kinds  of  music,  shall  fall  down  and  worship 
the  golden  image;  (11)  and  whoever  shall  not  fall 
down  and  worship  shall  be  cast  into  the  midst  of  a 

2  symjihony,  a  kind  of  bagpipe,— GV^enms,  Davies,  Hitzig,  Ewald, 
Zockler,  Keil. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  '341 

furnace  of  burning  fire.  (12)  Tliere  are  men,  who 
are  Jews,  whom  thou  hast  appointed  over  the  affairs 
of  the  province  of  Babylon,  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and 
Abed-nego ;  these  men,  O  king,  have  not  regarded 
thee ;  they  serve  not  thy  gods,  and  the  golden  image 
which  thou   hast  set  up  they  do  not  worship. 

(13)  Then  Nebuchadnezzar  in  rage  and  fury  com- 
manded to  bring  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego ; 
then  these  men  were  brought  before  the  king.  (14) 
Nebuchadnezzar  spoke  and  said  to  them,  Is  it  of 
design,  O  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego,  that 
ye  do  not  serve  my  gods,  nor  worship  the  golden 
image  Avhich  I  have  set  up? 

(15)  Now  if  ye  be  ready,  that  at  the  time  when  ye 
shall  hear  the  sound  of  the  horn,  flute,  harp,  sackbut, 
psaltery,  and  bagpipe,  and  all  kinds  of  music,  ye  will 
fall  down  and  worship  the  image  which  I  have  made, 
it  is  well ;  but  if  ye  will  not  worship,  at  the  same 
moment  shall  ye  be  cast  into  the  midst  of  the  furnace 
of  burning  fire;  and  who  is  that  god  that  shall  deliver 
you  out  of  my  hand? 

(16)  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego  answered 
and  said  to  the  king,  O  Nebuchadnezzar,  we  have  no 
need  to  answer  thee  in  this  matter.  (17)  If  it  be,  our 
God  whom  we  serve  is  able  to  deliver  us  from  the  fur- 
nace of  burning  fire,  and  from  thy  hand,  O  king,  lie 
will  deliver.  (18)  And  if  not,  ))e  it  known  unto  thee, 
O  king,  that  we  will  not  serve  thy  gods,  nor  worship 
the  golden  image  which  thou  hast  set  up. 

(19)  Then  was  Nebuchadnezzar  full  of  fury,  and  the 
form  of  his  countenance  was  changed  against  Shadrach, 


342  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

Meshach,  and  Abed-nego;  he  spake  and  commanded 
that  they  should  heat  the  furnace  seven  times  above 
what  it  was  wont  to  be  heated.  (20)  And  he  com- 
manded men,  the  most  mighty  of  his  army,  to  bind 
Sliadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego,  in  order  to  cast 
them  into  the  furnace  of  burning  fire.  (21)  Then 
these  men  were  bound  in  their  lower  garments,  their 
tunics,  and  their  mantles,  and  all  their  clothing,  and 
were  cast  into  the  midst  of  the  furnace  of  burning 
fire.  (22)  Therefoi'e,  because  the  command  of  the 
king  was  urgent,  and  the  furnace  exceeding  hot, 
the  men  who  took  up  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and 
Abed-nego,  them  the  flame  of  the  fire  slew.  (23) 
And  these  three  men,  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and 
Abed-nego,  fell  down  bound  into  the  midst  of  the 
furnace  of  burning  fire. 

(24)  Then  Nebuchadnezzar  the  king  was  aston- 
ished, and  rose  up  in  haste;  he  spoke  and  said  to 
his  counsellors.  Did  not  we  cast  three  men  into  the 
midst  of  the  fire,  bound  ?  They  answered  and  said 
to  the  king.  True,  O  king.  (25)  He  answered  and 
said,  Lo,  I  see  four  men  loose,  walking  in  the  midst 
of  the  fire,  and  there  is  no  hurt  to  them  ;  and  the 
appearance  of  the  fourth  is  like  to  a  son  of  the  gods.^ 
(26)  Then  Nebuchadnezzar  came  near  to  the  door 
of  the  furnace  of  burning,  fire;  he  spake  and  said, 
Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego,  ye  servants  of 
the  most  high  God,  come  forth,  and  come  out.  Then 
Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego  came  forth  from 

3  a  son  of  the  gods,— so  Hengstenberg,  Z'dcHer,  Keil,  Fuller;  a  son 
of  God, — Hitzig,  Fvxtlcl. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  .^     343 

the  midst  of  the  fire.  (27)  Awd  the  satraps,  the 
governors,  and  the  pashas,  and  the  counsellors  being 
assembled,  they  saw  these  men,  on  wliose  bodies  the 
fire  had  no  power,  and  the  hair  of  their  heads  was  not 
singed,  neither  were  their  lower  garments  changed, 
nor  had  the  smell  of  fire  passed  on  them,  (28) 
Nebuchadnezzar  spake  and  said.  Blessed  be  the  God 
of  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego,  who  hath 
sent  his  angel,  and  delivered  his  servants  who 
trusted  in  him,  and  transgressed  the  word  of  the 
king,  and  yielded  their  bodies  that  they  might  not 
serve  nor  worship  any  god  except  their  God.  (29) 
And  by  me  a  decree  is  made,  that  every  nation,  tribe, 
and  langua^  which  shall  speak  blasphemy  against 
the  God  of  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego 
shall  be  cut  to  pieces,  and  his  house  be  made  a 
dunghill;  because  there  is  no  other  god  who  is  thus 
able  to  deliver.  (30)  Then  the  king  jn'omoted  Shad- 
rach, Meshach,  and  Abed-nego,  in  the  province  of 
Babylon. 

CHAPTEK   IV. 

Nebuchadnezzar  the  king  to  all  nations,  tribes, 
and  languages  that  dwell  in  all  the  earth  ;  Peace  be 
multiplied  unto  you.  (2)  The  signs  and  wonders  which 
the  most  high  God  has  wrought  with  me  it  has  seem- 
ed good  for  me  to  declare.  (3)  His  signs,  how  great! 
His  wonders,  how  mighty !  His  kingdom  is  an  ever- 
lasting kingdom,  and  his  dominion  is  from  generation 
to  generation.  (4)  I  Nebuchadnezzar  was  at  rest  in 
my  house,  and  flourishing  in  my  palace ;  (5)  I  saw  a 


344       ^  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

dream,  and  it  made  me  afraid,  and  the  thoughts  upon 
my  bed  and  the  visions  of  my  head  terrified  me. 

(6)  And  by  me  a  decree  was  made  to  bring  before 
me  all  the  wise  men  of  Babylon,  that  they  might  make 
known  to  me  the  interpretation  of  the  dream.  (7) 
Then  came  in  the  scribes,  the  enclianters,  the  Chal- 
deans, and  the  astrologers ;  and  I  told  the  dream  be- 
fore them ;  but  they  did  not  make  known  to  me  the 
interpretation  thereof.  (8)  But  at  last  Daniel  came 
before  me,  wliose  name  is  Belteshazzar,  according  to 
the  name  of  my  god,  and  in  whom  is  the  spirit  of 
the   holy  gods;    and    before    him   I   told  tlie  dream. 

(9)  Belteshazzar,  master  of  the  scribes,  because  I  know 
that  the  spirit  of  the  holy  gods  is  in  thee,  and  that 
no  secret  presses  ^  thee,  tell  the  visions  o?  my  dream 
which   I   have  seen,   and   the  interpretation   thereof. 

(10)  And  the  visions  of  my  head  on  my  bed  were 
these.  I  saw,  and  behold,  a  tree  in  the  midst  of  the 
earth,  and  the  height  thereof  was  great.  (11)  The 
tree  became  great  and  waxed  strong,  and  the  height 
thereof  reached  unto  heaven,  and  the  sight  thereof 
to  the  end  of  all  the  earth.  (12)  The  foliage  there- 
of was  fair,  and  the  fruit  thereof  much,  and  on  it  was 
food  for  all ;  under  it  the  beasts  of  the  field  found 
shade,  and  the  fowls  of  the  heaven  dwelt  in  the 
branches  thereof,  and  all  flesh  was  fed  of  it.  (13) 
I  saw  in  the  visions  of  my  head  on  my  bed,  and,  be- 
hold, a  watcher,  even  a  holy  one,  came  down  from 
heaven.  (14)  He  cried  aloud  and  said  thus.  Hew 
down  the  tree,  and    cut    off  its    branches,  cause    its 

^  presses, — i.  e.  is  too  difficult  for. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  345 

foliage  to  fall  off,  and  scatter  its  frait;  let  the  beasts 
get  away  from  under  it,  and  the  fowls  from  its 
branches.  (15)  But  leave  the  stump  of  its  roots  in 
the  earth,  and  with  a  band  of  iron  and  brass,  in  the 
tender  grass  of  the  field ;  and  let  him  be  wet  with 
the  dew  of  heaven,  and  let  his  portion  be  with  the 
beasts  in  the  grass  of  the  earth;  (16)  let  his  heart 
be  changed  from  that  of  a  man,  and  let  the  heart 
of  a  beast  be  given  him,  and  let  seven  times  pass 
over  him.  (17)  By  the  decision  of  the  watchers  is 
the  decree,  and  by  the  command  of  the  holy  ones 
the  demand,  in  order  that  the  living  may  know  that 
the  Most  Hioh  is  ruler  over  the  kin2:dom  of  men, 
and  giveth  it  to  whomsoever  he  will,  and  setteth  up 
over  it  the  humblest  of  men.  (18)  This  dream  I, 
king  Nebuchadnezzar,  have  seen ;  and  do  thou,  Belte- 
shazzar,  declare  the  interpretation  thereof,  because  all 
the  wise  men  of  my  kingdom  are  not  able  to  make 
known  unto  me  the  interpretation ;  but  thou  art  able, 
for  the  spirit  of  the  holy  gods  is  in  thee. 

(19)  Then  Daniel,  whose  name  is  Belteshazzar,  was 
astonished  for  a  moment,^  and  his  thoughts  troubled 
him.  The  king  spoke  and  said,  Belteshazzar,  let  not 
the  dream  or  the  interpretation  thereof  trouble  thee. 
Belteshazzar  answered  and  said.  My  lord,  the  dream 
be  to  them  that  hate  thee,  and  the  interpretation  there- 
of to  thine  enemies.  (20)  The  tree  which  thou  saw- 
est,  which  became  great  and  waxed  strong,  and  whose 
height  reached  unto  heaven,  and  the  sight  tiiereof  to 

^  a  moment, — so    Keil^    Stuart,    Gesenius,    Fiierst,    Davies ;    one 
hoMY,—Z6cHer,  MichadU,  Hitzig,  Kranichjeld. 


346  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

all  the  earth,  (21)  and  whose  foliage  was  fair,  and  the 
fruit  thereof  much,  and  on  which  was  food  for  all, 
under  which  the  beasts  of  the  field  dwelt,  and  on 
the  branches  thereof  the  fowls  of  the  heaven  abode; 
(22)  it  is  thou,  O  king,  that  hast  become  great  and 
waxed  strong,  and  thy  greatness  hath  increased  and 
reached  unto  heaven,  and  thy  dominion  to  the  end 
of  the  earth.  (23)  And  whereas  the  king  saw  a 
Watcher,  even  a  Holy  One,  coming  down  from  hea- 
ven, and  saying,  Hew  down  the  tree,  and  destroy  it ; 
yet  leave  the  stump  of  its  roots  in  the  earth,  and  with 
a  band  of  iron  and  brass  in  the  tender  grass  of  the 
field ;  and  let  him  be  wet  with  the  dew  of  heaven,  and 
let  his  portion  be  with  the  beasts  of  the  field,  until 
seven  times  pass  over  him  ;  (24)  this  is  the  interpreta- 
tion, O  king,  and  it  is  the  decree  of  the  Most  High, 
which  is  come  upon  my  lord  the  king.  (25)  And  they 
shall  drive  thee  from  men,  and  thy  dwelling  shall  be 
with  the  beasts  of  the  field,  and  they  shall  cause  thee 
to  eat  grass  as  oxen,  and  they  shall  wet  thee  with  the 
dew  from  heaven,  and  seven  times  shall  pass  over 
thee,  until  thou  shalt  know  that  the  Most  High  is 
ruler  over  the  kingdom  of  men,  and  giveth  it  to 
whomsoever  he  will.  (26)  And  that  they  commanded 
to  leave  the  stump  of  the  roots  of  the  tree, — thy  king- 
dom shall  be  sure  unto  thee,  as  soon  as  thou  shalt 
know  that  the  Heavens  do  rule.  (27)  Wherefore,  O 
king,  let  my  counsel  be  pleasing  unto  thee,  and  break 
off^  thy  sins    by  righteousness,  and   thine  iniquities 

3  break  off, — so  Rashi,  Geier,  Starke,  Hdvernick,  Lengerke,  Kra- 
nichfeld,  Keil,  Stuart,  Melanchthon  in  Apol.  Conf.,  Art.  Ill,  140,  ed. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  347 

by  mercy  to  the  poor,  if  it  may  be  a  lengthening  of  thy 
tranquillity. 

(28)  The  whole  came  upon  Nebuchadnezzar  the  king. 
(29)  At  the  end  of  twelve  months  he  was  walking 
upon  the  royal  palace  of  Babylon.  (30)  The  king 
spake  and  said,  Is  not  this  great  Babylon,  which  I 
have  built  for  the  house  of  the  kingdom  by  the  might  of 
my  power,  and  for  the  honor  of  my  glory?  (31)  While 
the  word  was  in  the  king's  mouth,  there  fell  a  voice  from 
heaven,  O  king  Nei:)uchadnezzar,  to  thee  it  is  spoken, — 
the  kingdom  is  departed  from  thee.  (32)  And  they  shall 
drive  thee  from  men,  and  thy  dwelling  shall  be  with 
the  beasts  of  the  field  ;  they  shall  cause  thee  to  eat  grass 
as  oxen ;  and  seven  times  shall  pass  over  thee,  until 
thou  shalt  know  that  the  Most  High  is  ruler  over  the 
kingdom  of  men,  and  giveth  it  to  whomsoever  he  will. 
(33)  At  that  very  moment^  was  the  word  fulfilled  upon 
Nebu(;hadnezzar,  and  he  was  driven  from  men,  and  did 
eat  grass  like  oxen,  and  his  body  was  wet  with  the  dew 
of  heaven,  until  his  hair  grew  like  that  of  eagles,  and 
his  nails  like  those  of  birds. 

(34)  And  at  the  end  of  days,  I,  Nebuchadnezzar, 
lifted  up  mine  eyes  unto  heaven,  and  mine  understand- 
ing returned  unto  me,  and  I  blessed  the  Most  Higli,  and 
Him  who  liveth  for  ever  I  i)raised  and  honored,  whose 
dominion  is  an  everlasting  dominion  ;  and  his  kingdom 
is  from  generation  to  generation.  (35)  And  all  the  in- 
habitants of  the  earth  are  counted  as  nothin^r;  and  he 


■&  J 


Mii.,   p.   132;    redeem,— I'»/</a<^,   Saadiak,   Aben    Ezra,   BerthokU, 
Be  Wette,  Hitzig,  Z'dckler,  Gesenius,  Raman  Catholic  Commentators. 
*  See  verse  19. 


348  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

doeth  according  to  his  Avill  in  the  army  of  heaven,  and 
among  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  and  there  is  none 
who  can  stay  his  hand  or  say  to  him,  What  doest  thou  ? 
(36)  At  the  same  time,  my  understanding  returned  to 
me;  and  for  the  honor  of  my  kingdom,  my  glory  and 
splendor  returned  to  me,  and  my  counsellors  and  my 
lords  sought  me,  and  I  was  established  in  my  kingdom, 
and  excellent  majesty  was  added  unto  me.  (37)  There- 
fore I,  Nebuchadnezzar,  praise  and  exalt  and  honor 
the  King  of  heaven,  for  all  his  works  are  truth,  and 
his  ways  judgment;  and  those  who  walk  in  pride  he 
is  able  to  abase. 

CHAPTER  V. 
Belshazzar  the   king   made  a  great  feast  to  his 
thousand  karris,  and  drank  wine  before  the  thousand. 

(2)  Belshazzar,  while  tasting'  the  wine,  commanded 
to  bring  the  golden  and  silver  vessels  which  his  father 
Nebuchadnezzar  had  brought  from  the  temple  which 
was  in  Jerusalem,  that  the  king  and  his  nobles,  his 
wives  and   his  concubines,  might  driidv  out  of  them. 

(3)  Then  they  brought  the  golden  vessels  which  had 
been  taken  out  of  the  temple  of  the  house  of  God 
which  was  in  Jerusalem,  and  the  king  and  his  nobles, 
his  wives  and  his  concubines,  drank  out  of  them.  (4) 
They  drank  wine  and  praised  the  gods  of  gold  and 
of  silver,  of  brass,  of  iron,  of  wood,  and  of  stone. 

(5)  At  that  very  moment  came  forth   fingers  of  a 
man's    hand   and  wrote  over  against  the  candlestick 
upon   the  plaster  of  the   wall   of  the  palace  of  the 
1  Tasting,  enjoying,  drinking  so  as  to  feel  its  eifects. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  349 

king ;  and  the  king  saw  the  end  of  the  liand  which 
wrote.  (6)  Tlien  the  king  changed  his  color,  and  his 
thoughts  troubled  hiui,  and  the  joints  of  his  loins 
were  loosed,  and  his  knees  smote  one  against  the 
other.  (7)  The  king  cried  aloud  to  bring  in  tlie 
enchanters,  the  Chaldeans,  and  the  astrologers.  The 
king  spake  and  said  to  the  wise  men  of  Babylon, 
Whoever  shall  read  this  writing  and  declare  to  me 
the  interpretation  thereof,  shall  be  clothed  in  purple, 
and  have  a  chain  of  gold  about  his  neck,  and  shall 
rule  as  the  third  in  the  kingdom.  (8)  Then  came 
in  all  the  wise  men  of  the  king ;  but  they  were  not 
able  to  read  the  writing,  nor  make  known  to  the  king 
the  interpretation  thereof  (9)  Then  was  King  Bol- 
shazzar  m'eatlv  troubled,  and  his  color  was  chans^ed 
upon  him,  and  his  nobles  were  astonished.  (10)  The 
queen,  on  account  of  the  words  of  the  king  and  his 
nobles,  came  into  the  banquet-house ;  the  queen  spoke 
and  said,  O  king,  live  for  ever;  let  not  thy  thoughts 
trouble  thee,  nor  thy  color  be  changed.  (11)  There 
is  a  man  in  thy  kingdom  in  whom  is  the  spirit  of 
the  holy  gods,  and  in  the  days  of  thy  father^  light 
and  understanding  and  wisdom,  like  the  wisdom  of 
the  gods,  was  found  in  him  ;  and  king  Nebuchadnez- 
zar, thy  father — thy  father,  O  king — appointed  him 
master  of  the  scribes,  the  enchanters,  the  Chaldeans, 
the  astrologers, — (12)  inasmuch  as  an  excellent  spirit 
and  knowledge  and  understanding  to  interi)ret  dreams, 
show  mysteries,  and  dissolve  knots^  was  found  in  the 

2  father — i.  e.  grandfather.     See  Ex])osition,  pp.  139,  148. 
2  dissolve  knots — i.  e.  explain  difficult  subjects. 


350  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

same  Daniel,  whom  the  king  named  Belteshazzar ; 
now  let  Daniel  be  called,  and  he  will  declare  the 
interpretation. 

(13)  Then  was  Daniel  brought  before  the  king. 
The  king  spoke  and  said,  Art  thou  that  Daniel, 
who  art  of  the  sons  of  the  captivity  of  Judah, 
whom  the   king,  my  father,  brouglit  out  of  Judea  ? 

(14)  And  I  have  heard  of  thee,  that  the  spirit 
of  the  gods  is  in  thee,  and  that  light  and  under- 
standing  and    excellent    wisdom    is    found     in    thee. 

(15)  And  now  the  wise  men,  the  enchanters,  have 
been  brought  before  me,  that  they  might  read  this 
Avriting  and  make  known  to  me  the  interpretation 
thereof,  and  they  were  not  able  to  declare  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  word.  (16)  And  I  have  heard  of 
thee,  that  thou  art  able  to  make  interpretations  and 
dissolve  knots;  now  if  thou  art  able  to  read  the  writ- 
ing and  make  known  to  me  the  interpretation  thereof, 
thou  shalt  be  clothed  in  purple,  and  have  a  chain  of 
gold  about  thy  neck,  and  shalt  rule  as  the  third  in 
the  kingdom. 

(17)  Then  Daniel  answered  and. said  before  the  king. 
Let  thy  gifts  be  to  thyself,  and  give  thy  rewards  to  an- 
other; yet  I  will  read  the  writing  unto  the  king,  and 
make  known  to  him  the  interpretation.  (18)  O  thou 
king,  the  most  high  God  gave  Nebuchadnezzar,  thy 
father,  the  kingdom  and  the  majesty  and  the  glory 
and  the  honor;  (19)  and  for  tiie  majesty  that  he  gave 
him  all  nations,  tribes,  and  languages  trembled  and 
feared  before  him ;  whom  he  would  he  slew,  and 
whom  he  would  he  kept  alive;  and  whom  he  would 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  '>51 

he  set  up,  and  whom  he  would  he  put  down.  (20) 
And  when  his  heart  was  lifted  up,  and  his  spirit 
hardened  in  pride^  he  was  deposed  from  the  throne 
of  his  kingdom,  and  they  took  his  glory  from  him; 
(21)  and  he  was  driven  from  the  sons  of  men,  and 
his  heart  was  made  like  the  beasts,  and  his  dwelling 
was  with  the  wild  asses;  they  caused  him  to  eat  grass 
as  oxen,  and  his  body  was  wet  with  the  dew  of  heaven; 
till  he  knew  tliat  the  most  high  God  ruled  over  the 
kingdom  of  men,  and  that  he  appointeth  over  it 
whomsoever  he  will.  (22)  And  thou  his  son,  O 
Belshazzar,  hast  not  humbled  tliine  heart,  notwith- 
standing thou  didst  know  all  this;  (23)  but  thou  hast 
lifted  up  thyself  against  the  Lord  of  heaven;  and  the 
vessels  of  his  house  have  been  brought  before  thee,  and 
thou  and  thy  nobles,  thy  wives  and  thy  concubines,  have 
drunk  wine  out  of  them ;  and  thou  hast  praised  the  gods 
of  silver  and  of  gold,  of  brass,  of  iron,  of  wood,  and  of 
stone,  which  neither  see,  nor  hear,  nor  know;  and  the 
God,  in  whose  hand  thy  breath  is,  and  whose  are  all 
thy  ways,  hast  thou  not  glorified.  (24)  Then  was  the 
end  of  the  hand  sent  from  before  him  ;  and  this  writ- 
ing was  written.  (25)  And  this  is  the  writing  that 
was  written,  3Iene,  3Iene,  Tekel,  Upharsin.  (26) 
This  is  tlie  interpretation  of  the  word  ;  Meni\  God 
hath  numbered  thy  kingdom,  and  finished  it;  (27) 
Tekel,  thou  art  weighed  in  the  balances  and  art  found 
wantinj  ;  (28)  Peres,  thy  kingdom  is  divided,  and  is 
given  to  the  INIedes  and  Persians. 

(29)  Then  comnianded  Belshazzar,  and  they  clothed 
Daniel  in  purple,  and  put  a  chain  of  gold  on  his  neck. 


352  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

and  made  proclamation  concerning  him,  tliat  he  should 
rule  as  the  third  in  the  kingdom. 

(30)  In  that  night  was  Belshazzar,  the  king  of  the 
Chaldeans,  slain.  (31)  And  Darius  the  Median  took 
the  kingdom,  being  about  threescore  and  two  years 
old. 

CHAPTEK   VI. 

It  seemed  good  to  Darius  to  set  over  the  kingdom 
one  hundred  and  twenty  satraps,  who  should  be  over 
the  whole  kingdom  ;  (2)  and  over  them  three  presi- 
dents, of  whom  Daniel  was  one;  that  these  satraps 
might  render  an  account  unto  them,  and  the  king 
have  no  loss. 

(3)  Then  this  Daniel  outshone  the  presidents  and  sa- 
traps, because  an  excellent  spirit  was  in  him,  and  the 
king  thought  to  set  him  over  the  whole  kingdom. 

(4)  Then  the  presidents  and  satraps  sought  to  find 
occasion  against  Daniel  on  the  part  of  the  kingdom, 
but  they  were  not  able  to  find  any  occasion  or  corrup- 
tion, inasmuch  as  he  was  faithful,  and  not  any  fault 
or  corruption  ^vas  found  in  him.  (5)  Then  said  these 
men.  We  shall  not  find  any  occasion  against  this  Daniel, 
except  we  find  it  against  him  concerning  the  law  of  his 
God.  (6)  Then  these  presidents  and  satraps  ran  toge- 
ther with  tumult  to  the  king  and  said  thus  unto  him, 
O  king  Darius,  live  for  ever.  (7)  All  the  presidents 
of  the  kingdom,  the  g(^vernors  and  satraps,  the  coun- 
sellors and  pashas,  have  given  counsel  that  the  king 
should  establish  a  statute  and  make  a  firm  decree,  that 
whoever  shall  ask  a  petition  of  any  god  or  man  for 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  353 

thirty  days,  except  of  thee,  O  king,  he  shall  be  cast 
into  the  den  of  lions.  (8)  Now,  O  king,  establish  the 
decree,  and  sign  the  writing,  that  it  be  not  changed, 
according  to  the  law  of  the  Medes  and  Persians,  which 
altereth  not.  (9)  Because  of  this.  King  Darius  signed 
the  writing  and  the  decree. 

(10)  And  Daniel,  when  he  knew  that  the  writing 
was  signed,  went  to  his  house;  and  his  windows 
were  open  in  his  chamber  toward  Jerusalem,  and 
he  kneeled  upon  his  knees  three  times  in  a  day, 
and  prayed  and  gave  thanks  before  his  God,  be- 
cause he  had  done  so  before  this.  (11)  Then  these 
men  rushed  forward  and  found  Daniel  praying  and 
making  supplication  before  his  God.  (12)  Then  they 
drew  near  and  spoke  before  the  king  concerning  the 
decree  of  the  king:  Hast  thou  not  signed  a  decree  that 
every  man  that  shall  ask  of  any  god  or  man  for  thirty 
days,  except  of  thee,  O  king,  shall  be  cast  into  the 
den  of  lions  ?  The  king  answered  and  said :  The 
word  is  firm,  according  to  the  law  of  the  Medes  and 
Persians,  which  altereth  not.  (13)  Then  answered 
they,  and  said  before  the  king :  Daniel,  who  is  of  the 
sons  of  the  captivity  of  Judah,  doth  not  regard  thee, 
O  king,  nor  the  decree  which  thou  hast  signed,  but 
three  times  in  a  day  doth  he  make  his  petition.  (14) 
Then  the  king,  when  he  heard  the  word,  was  greatly 
displeased  with  himself,  and  set  his  heart  on  Daniel 
to  deliver  him  ;  and  he  labored  till  the  going  down 
of  the  sun  to  deliver  him.  (15)  Then  these  men  ran 
together  with  tumult  unto  the  king,  and  said  unto  the 
king.  Know,  O  king,  that  the  law  of  the  Medes  and 

28 


354  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

Persians  is,  that  no  decree  nor  statute  which  the  king 
establisheth  may  be  changed.  (16)  Then  the  king 
commanded,  and  they  brought  Daniel  and  cast  him 
into  the  den  of  lions.  The  king  spoke  and  said  unto 
Daniel,  May  thy  God,  whom  thou  servest  continually, 
deliver  thee!  (17)  And  a  stone  was  brought,  and 
placed  upon  the  mouth  of  the  den ;  and  the  king 
sealed  it  with  his  signet,  and  with  the  signet  of  his 
nobles,  that  the  matter^  concerning  Daniel  might  not 
be  changed. 

(18)  Then  the  king  went  to  his  palace,  and  passed 
the  night  fasting;  neither  were  concubines^  brought 
before  him;  and  his  sleep  fled  from  him.  (19)  Then 
the  king  arose  at  early  dawn,  when  it  was  light,  and 
went  in  haste  to  the  den  of  lions.  (20)  And  when 
he  drew  near  to  the  den,  he  cried  with  a  distressed 
voice  unto  Daniel ;  the  king  spoke  and  said  to  Dan- 
iel, O  Daniel,  servant  of  the  living  God,  is  thy  God, 
whom  thou  servest  continually,  able  to  deliver  thee 
from  the  lions?  (21)  Then  Daniel  spoke  with  the 
king :  O  king,  live  for  ever.  (22)  My  God  hath  sent 
his  angel,  and  hath  shut  the  mouth  of  the  lions,  and 
they  have  not  hurt  me;  inasmuch  as  before  him  inno- 
cency  was  found  in  me ;  and  also  before  thee,  O  king, 
have  I  done  no  harm.  (23)  Then  the  king  was  ex- 
ceeding glad  within  himself,^  and  he  commanded  that 

1  matter, — so  Zockler,  Keil ;  purposes, — Gesenius,  De  Wette,  Hdver- 
nick,  Lengerke,  Stuart,  Ilaurer,  Kliefoth. 

'^  concubines, — so  Gesenius,  Dietrich,  Tregelles,  Davies,  Keil,  Stuart, 
Zockler,  etc. 

^  within  himself, — so  Stuart,  Gesenius,  Maurer,  Lengerke,  Strong, 
Davies. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  355 

tliey  should  take  Daniel  up  out  of  the  den.  And 
Daniel  was  taken  up  out  of  the  den,  and  not  any  hurt 
was  found  on  him,  because  he  trusted  in  his  God. 
(24)  And  the  king  commanded,  and  they  brought 
those  men  who  had  accused  Daniel,  and  they  cast 
into  the  den  of  lions  them,  their  children,  and  their 
wives ;  and  they  had  not  come  to  the  bottom  of  the 
den  before  that  the  lions  had  the  mastery  of  them 
and  had  broken  their  bones  to  pieces, 

(25)  Then  Darius,  the  king,  wrote  to  all  the  na- 
tions, tribes,  and  languages  who  dwelt  in  all  the 
earth;  Peace  be  multiplied  unto  you.  (26)  By  me  a 
decree  is  made,  That  in  every  dominion  of  my  king- 
dom men  tremble  and  fear  before  the  God  of  Daniel ; 
for  he  is  the  living  God,  and  endureth  for  ever,  and 
his  kingdom  shall  not  be  destroyed,  and  his  dominion 
shall  be  unto  the  end.  (27)  It  is  he  that  delivereth 
and  rescueth,  and  who  doeth  signs  and  wonders  in 
heaven  and  on  earth,  who  hath  delivered  Daniel  from 
the  power  of  the  lions. 

(28)  And  this  Daniel  prospered  in  the  reign  of 
Darius  and  in  the  reign  of  Cyrus  the  Persian. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

In  the  first  year  of  Belshazzar,  king  of  Babylon, 
Daniel  had  a  dream  and  visions  of  his  head  upon  his 
bed ;  then  he  wrote  the  dream,  he  told  the  sum  of  the 
matters.     (2)  Daniel  spoke  and  said  : 

I  saw  in  my  vision  by  night,  and  behold,  the  four 
winds  of  the  heaven  broke  forth  upon  the  great  seii. 


356  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

(3)  And  four  monstrous  beasts  came  up  from  the  sea, 
diverse  one  from  another.  (4)  The  first  was  like  a 
lion,  and  it  had  the  wings  of  an  eagle;  I  saw  until 
the  wings  thereof  were  plucked,  and  it  was  lifted  up^ 
from  the  earth,  and  made  to  stand  on  the  feet  like  a 
man,  and  the  heart  of  a  man  was  given  to  it. 

(5)  And  behold,  another  beast,  a  second,  like  to  a 
bear,  and  it  raised  up  on  one  side,  and  three  ribs 
were  in  its  mouth  between  its  teeth,  and  thus  they 
said  to  it,  Arise,  devour  much  flesh. 

(6)  After  this  I  saw,  and  behold,  another,  like  a 
panther,  and  it  had  upon  its  back  four  wings  of  a 
bird ;  and  the  beast  had  four  heads,  and  dominion 
was  given  to  it. 

(7)  After  this,  I  saw  in  the  visions  of  the  night, 
and  behold,  a  fourth  beast,  dreadful  and  terrible,  and 
strong  exceedingly ;  and  it  had  great  teeth  of  iron ; 
it  devoured  and  broke  to  pieces,  and  stamped  the 
remnant  under  its  feet;  and  it  was  diverse  from  all 
the  beasts  that  were  before  it ;  and  it  had  ten  horns. 

(8)  I  was  considering  the  horns,  and  behold,  there 
came  up  between  them  another  little  horn,  and  three 
of  the  first  horns  were  rooted  out  from  before  it;  and, 
behold,  eyes  like  the  eyes  of  a  man  were  in  this  horn, 
and  a  mouth  speaking  great  things.  (9)  I  saw  until 
the  thrones  were  set,  and  the  Ancient  of  days  did  sit, 
whose  garment  was  white  as  snow,  and  the  hair  of 
his  head  like  pure  wool ;  his  throne  flames  of  fire, 
his   wheels  burning  flame.      (10)    A   stream   of   fire 

1  lifted  up, — so  Z'dckler,  Keil,  JStttart ;  taken  away, — Jerome,  Theo- 
dotion,  Rashi,  Bert/iohit,  Hitzig. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  357 

issued  and  came  forth  from  before  him ;  thousand 
thousands  ministered  to  liim,  and  ten  thousand  times 
ten  thousand  stood  before  him;  the  judgment  was  set, 
and  the  books  were  opened.  (11)  1  saw  then  because 
of  the  voice  of  the  great  words  which  the  horn  spoke; 
I  saw  until  the  beast  w^as  slain  and  its  body  destroyed, 
and  given  to  the  burning  fire.  (12)  And  as  to  the 
rest  of  the  beasts,  their  dominion  w'as  taken  away; 
and  continuance  of  their  lives  was  given  them  for  a 
season  and  time. 

(13)  I  saw  in  the  visions  of  the  night,  and  behold, 
with  the  clouds  of  heaven  One  like  the  Son  of  man 
came,  and  he  approached  the  Ancient  of  days,  and 
they  brought  him  near  before  him.  (14)  And  to  him 
Avas  given  dominion,  and  honor,  and  a  kingdom,  that 
all  nations,  tribes,  and  languages  should  serve  him ; 
his  dominion  is  an  everlasting  dominion,  which  shall 
not  pass  away,  and  his  kingdom  one  which  shall  not 
be  destroyed. 

(15)  As  for  me,  Daniel,  my  spirit  was  grieved  in 
the  midst  of  my  body,  and  the  visions  of  my  head 
troubled  me.  (16)  I  drew  near  to  one  of  them  that 
stood  by,  that  I  might  ask  of  him  the  certainty  of  all 
this.  And  he  told  me,  and  made  me  know  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  words. 

(17)  These  monstrous  beasts,  which  are  four,  are 
four  kings,  which  shall  arise  from  the  earth.  (18) 
And  the  saints  of  the  Most  High  shall  receive  the 
kingdom,  and  shall  possess  the  kingdom  for  ever, 
even  for  ever  and  ever. 

(19)  Then    I    desired    the    truth     concerning   the 


358  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

fourth  beast,  which  was  diverse  from  all  of  them, 
exceeding  terrible,  whose  teeth  were  of  iron,  and 
its  claws  of  brass;  which  devoured,  broke  to  pieces, 
and  stamped  the  remnant  under  its  feet ;  (20)  and 
concerning  the  ten  horns  that  were  on  its  head,  and 
the  other  one,  which  came  up,  and  before  whom 
three  fell,  and  that  horn,  even  it,  had  eyes,  and  a 
mouth  that  spoke  very  great  things,  and  its  aspect 
was  mightier  than  that  of  its  fellows.  (21)  I  saw, 
and  that  horn  made  war  with  the  saints,  and  pre- 
vailed against  them ;  (22)  until  the  Ancient  of  days 
came,  and  judgment  was  given^  to  the  saints  of  the 
Most  High,  and  the  time  came,  and  the  saints  pos- 
sessed the  kingdom.  (23)  Thus  he  spoke,  The  fourth 
beast  shall  be  the  fourth  kingdom  on  earth,  which 
shall  be  diverse  from  all  kingdoms,  and  it  shall  de- 
vour all  the  earth,  and  shall  tread  it  down,  and  break 
it  to  pieces.  (24)  And  the  ten  horns  out  of  this  king- 
dom are  ten  kings  which  shall  arise;  and  another  shall 
rise  after  them,  and  he  shall  be  diverse  from  the  first, 
and  he  shall  overthrow  three  kings.  (25)  And  he 
shall  speak  words  against  the  Most  High,  and  the 
saints  of  the  Most  High  shall  he  vex,  and  he  shall 
think  to  change  times  and  law;  and  they^  shall  be 
mven  into  his  hand  until  a  time  and  times  and  the 
dividing  of  time.  (26)  And  the  judgment  shall 
sit,  and  they  shall  take  away  his  dominion,  to  con- 
sume  and   to  destroy  it,  to  the   end.     (27)  And   the 

2  was  given, — so  Hengstenberfj,  Fausset,  Wordsworth,  Aiith.   Ver- 
sion; done  unto, — IHtzig,  Zockler,  Keil,  De  Wette. 

3  They — i.  e.  the  saints^  or  things  in  general. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  359 

kingdom,  and  dominion,  and  the  greatness  of  the 
kingdom  under  the  wliole  heaven,  shall  be  given  to 
the  people  of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High ;  whose 
kingdom  is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and  all  domin- 
ions shall  serve  and  obey  him.  (28)  Hitherto  is  the 
end  of  the  matter.^  As  for  me,  Daniel,  my  thoughts 
much  troubled  me,  and  my  color  changed  upon  me, 
but  I  kept  the  matter  in  my  heart. 

CHAPTER  VIII.* 

In  the  third  year  of  the  reign  of  Belshazzar  the 
king,  a  vision  appeared  to  me,  to  me,  Daniel,  after 
that  which  appeared  to  me  at  the  first.  (2)  And  I 
saw  in  a  vision,  and  it  came  to  pass,  when  I  saw, 
that  I  was  in  Shushan,  the  palace,  which  is  in  the 
province  of  Elam  ;  and  I  saw  in  a  vision,  and  I  was 
by  the  river  Ulai. 

(3)  And  I  lifted  up  my  eyes,  and  saw,  and  behold! 
a  ram  standing  before  the  river,  and  he  had  two  horns; 
and  the  two  horns  were  high,  but  one  was  higher  than 
the  other,  and  the  liigher  came  up  last.  (4)  I  saw  the 
ram  pushing  westward,  and  northward,  and  south- 
ward ;  and  none  of  the  beasts  could  stand  before 
him,  neither  could  any  deliver  out  of  his  hand;  and 
he  did  according  to  his  will,  and  became  great.  (5) 
And  I  w^as  considering,  and  behold,  a  he-goat  came 
from  the  west  on  the  face  of  all  the  earth,  and 
touched   not  the  earth ;    and  the  goat  had   a  notable 

*  tlie  matter, — the  word, — Ewald,  Zockler,  Keil. 

*  With  the  beginning  of  this  chapter  the  Hebrew  language  is  re- 
sumed, in  which  all  that  follows  is  written. 


360  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

horn  between  his  eyes.  (6)  And  he  came  to  the 
ram  which  had  two  horns,  which  I  liad  seen  stand- 
ing before  the  river,  and  ran  to  him  in  the  heat  of 
his  power.  (7)  And  I  saw  him  when  he  approached 
near  the  ram,  and  he  was  enraged  at  him,  and  smote 
the  ram,  and  broke  to  pieces  his  two  horns ;  and 
there  was  no  power  in  the  ram  to  stand  before  him, 
and  he  cast  him  down  to  the  earth,  and  stamped 
upon  him,  and  there  was  no  deliverer  to  deliver  the 
ram  out  of  his  hand.  (8)  And  the  he-goat  waxed 
exceeding  great;  and  when  he  had  become  great, 
the  great  horn  was  broken ;  and  for  it  came  up  four 
notable  ones^  toward  the  four  winds  of  heaven. 

(9)  And  from  one  of  them  came  up  out  of  little- 
ness^ one  horn,  and  it  waxed  exceeding  great  toward 
the  south,  and  toward  the  east,  and  toward  the  glo- 
rious^ land. 

(10)  And  it  waxed  great,  even  to  the  host  of 
heaven;  and  it  cast  down  to  earth  some  of  the  host 
and  of  the  stars  and  trampled  upon  them.  (11) 
Even  to  the  Prince  of  the  host  did  he  magnify  him- 
self, and  by  him  the  daily  service'*  was  taken  away, 
and  the  dwelling-place  of  his  sanctuary  was  cast 
down.     (12)  And  a  host  was  placed  over^  the  daily 

1  or,  came  up  conspicuously  four. 

2  out  of  littleness, — so  Keil,  llaurer,  Hofmann,  Kranichfeld,  Klie- 
foth,  Zockler  ;  one  little  horn, — Lengerke,  Stuart,  Strong,  Authorized 
Version. 

3  glorious, — literally,  the  glory. 

*  daily  service, — so  Hengsteyiherg,  Havernick,  Ilofmann,  Kranich- 
feld, Kliefoth,  Keil,  Zockler. 

5  a  host  was  placed  over, — so  Stuart,  Grotius,  llichaelis;  a  host 
shall  be  given  up  together  with, — Keil,  De  Wette,  Lengerke,  Haver- 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  361 

service  by  means  of  transgression/  and  it  ^  cast  down 
the  truth  to  the  ground;  and  it  did  and  prospered. 

(13)  And  I  heard  a  holy  one  speaking,  and  one 
holy  one  said  to  the  certain  one  who  was  speaking, 
How  long  shall  be  the  vision  of  ih^  daily  service  and 
the  transgression  of  the  desolater — the  giving  up  of 
both  the  sanctuary  and  the  host  to  be  trampled  upon? 
(14)  And  he  said  unto  me.  Unto  two  thousand  and 
three  hundred  evening-mornings ;  then  shall  the  sanc- 
tuary be  justified. 

(15)  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  I,  I  Daniel,  was  seeing 
the  vision,  that  I  sought  a  meaning,  and  behold,  there 
stood  one  before  me  like  the  appearance  of  a  man. 
(16)  And  I  heard  the  voice  of  a  man  between  the 
Ulai,  and  he  called  and  said,  Gabriel,  make  this 
man  to  understand  the  vision.  (17)  And  he  came 
near  where  I  stood,  and  as  he  came,  I  was  afraid, 
and  fell  on  my  face;  and  he  said  to  me,  Understand, 
O  son  of  man ;  for  the  vision  is  to  the  time  of  the 
end.  (18)  And  as  he  was  speaking  with  me,  I  was 
in  a  deep  sleep  on  my  face,  on  the  earth ;  and  he 
touched  me,  and  caused  me  to  stand  upright.  (19) 
And  he  said.  Behold,  I  will  make  thee  to  know 
what  shall  be  in  the  last  time  of  the  indignation; 
for  at  the  appointed  time  is  the  end. 

(20)  The  ram  which  thou  sawest  having  two  horns 
are  the  kings  of  Media  and  Persia.  (21)  And  the 
shaggy  goat  is    the  king  of  Greece;    and  the  great 

nick,  Kranichfeld,  Kliefoth,  3Icmrer  ;  a  host  shall  be  raised  against, 
— Hitzig,  Eioald,  Zockler,  Kamphausen,  Jerome,  Luther. 

6  by  means  of  transgression,— so  Hitzig,  Ewald,  Zockler,  Stuart. 

^  it — i.  e.  the  horn. 


362  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

horn  which  is  between  its  eyes,  that  is  the  first  king. 
(22)  And  that  it  was  broken  and  four  stood  up  in 
its  stead,  four  kingdoms  shall  stand  up  out  of  the 
nation,  but  not  with  his  power.  (23)  And  in  the 
last  time  of  their  kingdom,  when  the  transgressors 
shall  have  come  to  the  full,  a  king  of  hard  counte- 
nance and  understanding  intrigues  shall  stand  up; 
(24)  and  his  power  shall  be  mighty,  but  not  by  his 
own  power;  and  he  shall  destroy  wonderfully,  and 
shall  prosper  and  do,  and  shall  destroy  the  mighty^ 
and  the  holy  people.  (25)  And  through  his  cunning 
he  also  shall  cause  deceit  to  prosper  in  his  hand,  and 
he  shall  magnify  himself  in  his  own  heart,  and  un- 
expectedly ^  shall  he  destroy  many ;  and  against  the 
Prince  of  princes  shall  he  stand  up,  but  he  shall  be 
broken  to  pieces  without  hand.  (26)  And  the  vision 
of  the  evening  and  the  morning  which  was  told,  it 
is  true ;  and  do  thou  shut  up  the  vision,  for  it  shall 
be  for   many  days. 

(27)  And  I,  Daniel,  fainted  and  was  sick  for  days ; 
and  I  arose  and  did  the  business  of  the  king;  and  I 
was  astonished  at  the  vision,  and  none  understood  it.^^ 

CHAPTER  IX. 

In  the  first  year  of  Darius  the  son  of  Ahasuerus, 
of  the  seed  of  the  Medes,  who  was   made  king  over 

8  mighty, — so  Keil,   Zdckler ;    mfxnj, —Stuart,   LengerJce,   3Iaurer, 
Kliejoth. 

9  unexpectedly, — so  Keil,  Stuart, 

10  none  understood  it, — so  Keil,  etc. ;  I  understood  it  not, — JIaicrer, 
Hitzig,  Kranichfeld,  Kamphausen,  Stuart. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  363 

the  kingdom  of  the  Chaldeans ;  (2)  in  the  first  year 
of  his  reign,  1,  Daniel,  understood  by  the  Scriptures 
the  number  of  the  years  concerning  which  the  word 
of  Jehovah  came  to  Jeremiah  the  prophet, — to  fulfil 
seventy  years  with  respect  to  the  desolations  of  Jeru- 
salem. (3)  And  I  set  my  face  unto  the  Lord  God,  to 
seek  prayer  and  supplications,  with  fasting,  and  sack- 
cloth and  ashes;  (4)  and  I  prayed  to  Jehovah  my 
God,  and  made  confession,  and  said  : 

O  Lord,  the  great  and  dreadful  God,  who  keepeth 
the  covenant  and  mercy  to  them  that  love  him  and 
keep  his  commandments;  (5)  we  have  sinned,  and 
have  acted  perversely,  and  have  done  wickedly,  and 
have  rebelled,  and  have  departed  from  thy  command- 
ments and  from  thy  judgments;  (6)  and  we  have  not 
hearkened  to  thy  servants  the  prophets,  who  spoke  in 
thy  name  to  our  kings,  our  princes,  and  our  fathers, 
and  to  all  the  people  of  the  land.  (7)  To  thee,  O 
Lord,  belongeth  righteousness,  but  unto  us  shame  of 
face,  as  at  this  day  ;  to  the  men  of  Judah,  and  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  and  to  all  Israel,  who  are 
near  and  who  are  afar  off,  in  all  the  countries  whither 
thou  hast  driven  them,  because  of  their  trespass  which 
they  have  trespassed  against  thee.  (8)  O  Lord,  to  us 
belongeth  shame  of  face,  to  our  kings,  to  our  princes, 
and  to  our  fathers,  because  we  have  sinned  against 
thee.  (9)  To  the  Lord  our  God  belong  mercies  and 
forgivenesses,  for  we  have  rebelled  against  him ;  (10) 
And  we  have  not  hearkened  to  the  voice  of  Jehovah 
our  God,  to  walk  in  his  laws,  which  he  has  set  before 
us  by  the  hand  of  his  servants  the  prophets.     (11) 


364  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

And  all  Israel  have  transgressed  thy  law,  and  have 
turned  back,  that  they  might  not  hearken  to  thy 
voice;  and  thou  hast  poured  upon  us  the  curse  and 
the  oath  which  is  written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  the  ser- 
vant of  God,  because  we  have  sinned  against  him.  (12) 
And  he  hath  confirmed  his  words,  which  he  spoke  con- 
cerning us,  and  concerning  our  judges,  who  judged  us, 
by  bringing  upon  us  a  great  evil,  which  hath  not  been 
done  under  the  whole  heaven,  as  it  hath  been  done 
upon  Jerusalem.  (13)  According  to  what  is  written 
in  the  law  of  Moses,  all  this  evil  has  come  upon  us ; 
and  yet  we  have  not  made  supplication  before  Jeho- 
vah our  God,  that  we  might  turn  from  our  iniquities 
and  understand  thy  truth.  (14)  And  Jehovah  hath 
watched  over  the  evil,  and  brought  it  upon  us ; 
for  righteous  is  Jehovah  our  God  concerning  all  his 
works  which  he  doeth,  and  we  have  not  hearkened 
to  his  voice.  (15)  And  now,  O  Lord,  our  God,  who 
hast  brought  thy  people  from  the  land  of  Egypt  with 
a  mighty  hand,  and  hast  made  for  thyself  a  name,  as 
at  this  day ;  we  have  sinned,  we  have  done  wickedly. 
(16)  O  Lord,  according  to  all  thy  righteousness,  let 
thine  anger  and  thy  fury  be  turned  away  from  thy 
city  Jerusalem,  thy  holy  mountain  ;  for,  on  account 
of  our  sins  and  the  iniquities  of  our  fathers,  Jeru- 
salem and  thy  people  are  become  a  reproach  to  all 
around  us,  (17)  And  now,  O  our  God,  hear  the 
prayer  of  thy  servant,  and  his  supplications,  and 
cause  thy  face  to  shine  upon  thy  sanctuary,  which  is 
desolate,  for  the  Lord's  sake.  (18)  O  my  God,  in- 
cline thine  ear,  and  hear;    open  thine    eyes  and  see 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  365 

our  desolations,  and  the  city  upon  which  thy  name  is 
called;  for  we  do  not  lay  down  our  supplication  on 
account  of  our  righteousness,  but  on  account  of  thy 
great  mercies.  (19)  O  Lord,  hear;  O  Lord,  forgive; 
hearken  and  do  ;  delay  not,  for  thine  own  sake,  O  my 
God,  for  thy  name  is  called  upon  thy  city  and  upon 
thy  people. 

(20)  And  while  I  was  speaking  and  praying,  and 
confessing  my  sin  and  the  sin  of  my  people  Israel, 
and  laying  my  supplication  before  Jehovah,  my  God, 
concerning  the  holy  mountain  of  my  God,  (21)  even 
while  I  was  speaking  In  prayer,  the  man  Gabriel, 
whom  I  had  seen  in  the  vision  at  first,  wearied  w^Ith 
a  swift  course,  reached  me  about  the  time  of  the  even- 
ing oblation.  (22)  And  he  gave  understanding  and 
talked  with  me,  and  said,  O  Daniel,  I  am  now  come 
to  instruct  thee  in  knowledge.  (23)  At  the  beginning 
of  thy  supplication  the  word  went  forth,  and  I  am 
come  to  tell  thee ;  for  thou  art  greatly  beloved ; 
therefore  consider  the  word,  and  understand  the 
vision. 

(24)  Seventy  sevens  are  cut  off'  upon  thy  people 
and  upon  thy  holy  city  to  finish  the  transgression, 
and  to  seal  up  sins,  and  to  make  reconciliation  for  in- 
iquity, and  to  bring  in  everlasting  righteousness,  and 
to  seal  vision  and  prophecy,  and  to  anoint  a  holiness 
of  hollnesses.^  (25)  Know,  therefore,  and  understand, 
from  the  going  forth  of  the  word  to  restore  and  to 
build  Jerusalem  unto  Messiah  Prince  shall  be  seven 
sevens,  and  threescore  and   two  sevens;   it  shall    be 

1  See  Exposition,  pp.  240-242. 


366  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

restored  and  built  with  the  street  and  fosse,^  but  in 
troublous  times. 

(26)  And  after  the  threescore  and  two  sevens,  Mes- 
siah shall  be  cut  off,  and  nothing  is  to  him;^  and  the 
people  of  the  prince  that  shall  come  will  destroy  the 
city  and  the  sanctuary;  and  its^  end  shall  be  with  a 
flood,  and  unto  the  end  shall  be  war,^  a  decree  of 
desolations. 

(27)  And  he^  shall  confirm  a  covenant  with  many 
for  one  seven  ;  and  in  the  middle  of  the  seven  he  shall 
cause  the  sacrifice  and  the  oblation  to  cease,  and  upon 
a  wing  of  abominations  shall  be  the  desolater,  even 
until  the  consummation,  and  that  determined  shall  be 
poured  upon  the  desolater." 

CHAPTEK   X. 

[In  the  third  year  of  Cyrus,  king  of  Persia,  a  word 
was  revealed  to  Daniel,  whose  name  was  called  Belte- 
shazzar;    and  the  word  was  truth,  and   the  warfare 

2  fosse, — so  Gesenius,  Herzfeld,  Eioald,  Zockler ;  aqueduct, — Gro- 
tius,  Fusey. 

3  See  Exposition,  pp.  249,  250.  Cf.  Hofmann,  Ilengstenherg,  Kra- 
nichfeld,  Kliefoth,  Calvin,  Ebrard,  Fusey,  Vulgate. 

*  its — i.  e.  the  city  and  sanctuary's, — so  Hengstenberg,  Hitzig,  Fusey, 
Hdvernick,  Auherlen,  Delitzsch. 

s  and  unto  the  end  shall  be  war, — so  Hengstenberg,  Hitzig,  Hdver- 
nick, Keil,  Lengerke,  Maurer,  Fusey,  Wieseler,  Kranichfeld,  Auberlen, 
Kliefoth,  Stuart ;  unto  the  end  of  the  war, — Fosenmilller,  Hofmann, . 
Ewald,  Fuller,  Zockler. 

6  he — i.  e.  the  prince  that  shall  come  and  become  the  desolater, — so 
Bertholdt,  Maurer,  Wieseler,  Eivald,  Kranichfeld,  Kliefoth,  Stuart, 
Keil,  Zockler. 

^  upon  the  desolater, — so  De  Wette,  3Iaurer,  Davidson;  the  terrible 
thing, — Hitzig,  Herzfeld,  Ewald. 


THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL.  367 

great  ;^  and  he  understood  the  word,  for  understand- 
ing was  given  to  him  in  the  vision.J 

(2)  In  those  days  I  Daniel  was  mourning  three 
whole  weeks.  (3)  I  ate  no  pleasant  bread,^  neither 
flesh  nor  wine  came  into  my  mouth,  I  did  not  so 
much  as  anoint  myself,  until  three  whole  weeks  were 
fulfilled.  (4)  And  on  the  four  and  twentieth  day  of 
the  first  month  I  was  by  the  side  of  the  great  river, 
which  is  Hiddekel;*  (5)  and  I  lifted  up  mine  eyes, 
and  saw,  and  behold,  a  man  clothed  in  linen,  and  his 
loins  girded  about  with  fine  gold  of  Uphaz;  (6)  and 
his  body  was  like  the  beryl,  and  his  face  like  the  ap- 
pearance of  lightning,  and  his  eyes  like  lamps  of 
fire,  and  his  arms  and  his  feet  like  the  lustre  of  pol- 
ished brass,  and  the  voice  of  his  words  like  the  voice 
of  a  multitude.  (7)  And  I  Daniel  alone  saw  the 
vision ;  for  the  men  who  were  with  me  saw  not  the 
vision ;  but  a  great  quaking  fell  upon  them,  and  they 
fled,  hiding  themselves.  (8)  And  I  was  left  alone, 
and  I  saw  this  great  vision,  and  no  strength  was  left 
in  me ;  and  my  life-appearance  w^as  turned  upon  me 
to  destruction,  and  1  retained  no  strength.  (9)  And 
I  heard  the  voice  of  his  words;  and  when  I  heard 
the  voice  of  his  words,  then  was  I  in  a  deep  sleep 
upon  my  face,  and  my  face  was  toward  the  earth.  (10) 
And,  behold,  a  hand  touclied  me,  and  it  raised^  me  u}>on 
my  knees  and  the  palms  of  my  hands.     (11)  And  he 

1  warfare  great, — Cheyne,  Driver,  Keil,  Stuart,  Zockler,  Maurer, 
De  Wette.  2  [■  ]  gee  Exposition,  p.  259. 

^  pleasant  bread, — Keil,  Stuart ;  leavened  bread, — Udvei'nick, 
Lengerke,  Jfaurer,  Ifitzig,  Kranichfeld,  Zockler. 

*  Hiddekel — i.  e.  the  Tigris.  ">  raised, — lit.  shook. 


368  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

said  unto  nie,  O  Daniel,  a  man  greatly  beloved,  under- 
stand the  words  which  I  speak  unto  thee,  and  stand 
upright ;  for  unto  thee  am  I  now  sent.  And  while 
he  was  speaking  this  word  unto  me,  I  stood  up, 
trembling. 

(12)  And  he  said  unto  me.  Fear  not,  Daniel ;  for 
from  the  first  day  that  thou  gavest  thy  heart  to  un- 
derstand, and  to  humble  thyself  before  thy  God,  thy 
words  were  heard,  and  I  am  come  according  to  thy 
words.  (13)  And  the  prince  of  the  kingdom  of 
Persia  withstood  me  one  and  twenty  days;  and,  lo, 
Michael,  one  of  the  chief  princes,  came  to  help  me; 
and  I  gained  the  victory^  there,  with  the  kings  of 
Persia.  (14)  And  I  am  come  to  make  thee  under- 
stand what  shall  befall  thy  people  in  the  latter  days, 
for  the  vision  is  yet  for  those  days. 

^[(15)  And  while  he  was  speaking  unto  me  words 
like  these,  I  set  my  face  toward  the  earth  and  became 
dumb.  (16)  And,  behold,  one  like  the  sons  of  men 
touched  my  lips ;  and  I  opened  my  mouth  and  spoke, 
and  said  to  him  who  stood  before  me ;  My  lord,  by 
the  vision  my  distresses^  are  turned  upon  me,  and  I 
have  retained  no  strength.  (17)  And  how  can  this 
servant  of  my  lord  speak  with  this  my  lord? 

^  I  gained  the  victory, — Luther,  Geier,  Winer,  Gesenius,  HdveV' 
nick,  Keil,  Fausset ;  I  rnaintainecl  my  place, — Fuller,  Hofmann ; 
I  was  no  longer  needed, — Eivald,  Z'dckler ;  I  remained  or  tarried, — 
Vulgate,  Dereser,  Rosenmilller,  Kranichfeld. 

^  [  ]  verses  15-21  and  xi.  1.     See  Exposition,  pp.  258-261. 

8  distresses,  or  pains, — Cheyne,  Driver,  Gesenius,  Davies,  Z'kk- 
ler,  Keil,  Fausset;  my  joints  trembled  in  me, —  Vulgate,  Luther, 
Bertholdt,  Hdvernick,  Fiiller ;  ray  features  were  changed, — Eivald, 
Stuart. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  369 

And  as  for  me,  straiglitway  there  remained  no 
strength  in  me,  neither  was  there  breath  left  in 
me.  ,  (18)  And  one  like  the  appearance  of  a  man 
again  touched  me,  and  he  strengthened  me.  (19) 
And  he  said,  O  man  greatly  beloved,  fear  not ;  peace 
be  unto  thee,  be  very  strong.  And  while  he  was 
speaking  to  me,  I  was  strengthened,  and  said,  Let 
my  lord  speak  ;  for  thou  hast  strengthened  me.  (20) 
And  he  said.  Dost  thou  know  why  I  am  come  unto 
thee?  and  now  will  I  return  to  fight  with  the  prince 
of  Persia ;  and  when  I  am  gone  forth,  lo,  the  prince 
of  Greece  shall  come.  (21)  But  yet  I  will  tell  thee 
what  is  written  in  the  book  of  truth ;  and  tliere  is  no 
one  who  puts  forth  his  strength  with  me  against  these, 
save  Michael  your  prince.  (CHAPTER  XL)  (1) 
And  I  also,  in  the  first  year  of  Darius  the  Mede,  stood 
to  strengthen  and  confirm  him.^]  (2)  And  now  I 
Avill  tell  thee  the  truth. 

Behold,  three  kings  of  Persia  shall  yet  stand  up; 
and  the  fourth  shall  acquire  greater  riches  than  they 
all ;  and  when  he  is  become  strong,  through  liis 
riches,  he  shall  stir  up  all,  toward  the  kingdom  of 
Greece.  (3)  And  a  mighty  king  shall  arise,  and  he 
shall  rule  a  great  dominion,  and  do  according  to  his 
will.  (4)  And  when  he  is  risen  up,  liis  kingdom 
shall  be  broken,  and  it  shall  be  divided  toward  the 
four  winds  of  heaven ;  but  not  to  his  posterity,  nor 
according  to  his  dominion  which  he  ruled ;  for  his 
kingdom  shall  be  plucked  up,  and  shall  be  for  others 

1  him — i.  e.    Micliael, — Hofmann,    Fuller,  Zikkler,   Fell,  Stuar't, 
Rosenmilller ;  or,  Darius, — Havemick,  Ilitzig,  Hcnystenberg. 
24 


370  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

besides  these.  ^[(5)  And  the  king  of  tlie  south  shall 
wax  strong;  but  one  of  his  princes^  shall  become 
stronger  than  he,  and  shall  rule;  his  dominion  shall 
be  a  great  dominion.  (6)  And  at  the  end  of  years 
they  shall  form  an  alliance;  and  the  daughter  of  the 
king  of  the  south  shall  come  to  the  king  of  the  north 
to  make  agreements;^  but  she  shall  not  retain  the 
power  of  the  arm,  neither  shall  he  stand,  nor  his 
arm;  and  she  shall  be  given  up,  and  they  that 
brought  her,  and  he  who  begat  her,  and  he  that 
strengthened  her  in  the  times. 

(7)  And  one  of  the  branches  of  her  roots  shall  rise 
up  in  his  place,  and  he  shall  come  against  the  army^ 
and  shall  enter  into  the  fortress  of  the  king  of  the 
north,  and  shall  do  against  them  and  prevail  ;  (8) 
and  he  shall  also  carry  into  captivity  to  Egypt, 
their  gods,  with  their  molten  images,  with  their 
precious  vessels  of  silver  and  gold;  and  he  shall 
withstand^  for  years  the  king  of  the  north.  (9) 
And  he''  shall  come  into  the  kingdom  of  the  south, 
but  he  shall  return  into  his  own  land. 


2  [  ]  verses  5-35.     See  Exposition,  pp.  258-264. 
»  but  one   of  his  princes   shall   become, — Keil,   ZocMer,   Ftvald, 
Hitzig,  Stuart,  Fausset.  *  agreements,— ^i7..  rights. 

5  against  the  army, — Keil,  Zockler,  Kranichfeld ;  unto  the  [his] 
army,  Hitzig,  Herzfeld,  Kliefoth,  Eivald,  Stuart,  Michaelis,  Ber- 
tholdt,  Lengerke;  he  attained  to  might, — Hdvernick. 

6  withstand  for  years  the  king, — Bertholdt,  Gesenius,  Winer,  Be 
Wette,   Kranichfeld,   Keil,   Peshito,    Vtdgate;   stand   aloof  from, — 

Hitzig,    Kliefoth,    Ewald,    Zockler,    Stuart,    Hdvernick,    Lengerke, 
Maurer. 

7  he— -i.e.  the  king  of  the  north, — so  Keil,  Zockler,  Cheyne,  Driver , 
Stuart. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  371 

(10)  And  liis^  sons  shall  stir  up  war,  and  shall 
assemble  a  multitude  of  great  forces;  and  he  shall 
come,  and  overflow,  and  pass  through  ;  aud  he  shall 
return  and  make  war  to  his^  fortress.  (11)  And  the 
king  of  the  south  shall  become  greatly  enraged,  and 
he  will  go  forth  and  fight  with  him,  with  the  king 
of  the  north;  and  he^°  shall  raise  up  a  great  multi- 
tude; but  the  multitude  shall  be  given  into  his" 
hand.  (12)  And  the  multitude  shall  lift  itself  up,*^ 
and  his^^  heart  shall  be  elated;  and  he  shall  cast 
down  tens  of  thousands,  but  he  shall  not  become 
strong.  (13)  And  the  king  of  the  north  shall  re- 
turn, and  he  shall  raise  up  a  multitude  greater  than 
the  first  one,  and  at  the  end  of  times,  years,  he  shall 
surely  come  with  a  great  army  and  with  much  sub- 
stance.^'* (14)  And  in  those  times  many  -will  stand 
up  against  the  king  of  the  south  ;  and  the  violent 
sons  of  thy  people  shall  exalt  themselves  to  establish 
the  vision,  but  they  shall  fall.  (15)  And  the  king  of 
the  north  shall  come,  and  he  shall  cast  up  a  mound, 
and  take  a  strongly  fortified  city ;  '^  and  the  arms  of 
the  south  shall  not  withstand,  neither  his  chosen  peo- 
ple,^^  neither  shall  there  be  any  power  to  withstand. 
(16)  And  he  who  cometh  against  him  shall  do  accord- 

^  his — i.  e.  the  king  of  the  north's. 

9  his — i.  e.  the  king  of  the  south's. 

"*  he — i.  e.  the  king  of  the  north, — Keil,  Fausset. 

1^  his — i.  e.  the  king  of  the  south's, — Keil,  Fausset. 

12  shall  lift  itself  up, — Cheyne,  Driver,  Zockler,  Keil. 

13  his — i.  e.  the  king  of  the  south's. 
1*  substance — i.  e.  equipment. 

15  strongly  fortified  city, — lit.  a  city  of  fortifications. 

16  people — i.  e.  troops. 


372  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

ing  to  his  will,  and  none  shall  stand  before  him ;  and 
he  shall  stand  in  the  glorions  land/^  and  destruction  is 
in  his  hand.^*  (17)  And  he  shall  set  his  face  to  come 
with  the  strength  ^^  of  his  whole  kingdom,  and  agree- 
ments^ shall  he  make  with  him;  and  he  shall  give 
the  daughter  of  women  to  him,  to  destroy  it;^^  but 
it^^  shall  not  stand,  neither  be  for  him.  (18)  And 
he  shall  turn  his  face  unto  the  isles,  and  shall  take 
many ;  but  a  chieftain  shall  cause  the  reproach  offer- 
ed by  him  to  cease,  yea,  his  own  reproach  shall  he 
cause  to  return  upon  himself.  (19)  And  he  shall 
turn  his  face  toward  the  fortresses  of  his  own  land  ; 
and  he  shall  skimble  and  fall,  and  not  be  found. 

(20)  And  there  shall  stand  up  in  his  place  one  that 
shall  cause  a  raiser  of  taxes  to  pass  over  ^^  the  glory 

1'^  glorious  land, — lit.  land  of  beauty. 

'^^  destruction  is  in  his  hand, —  Gesenius,  Hitzig,  Herzfeld,  Z'dckler, 
Keil ;  it  is  wholly  in  his  hand, — Hdvernick,  Lengerke,  Van  Ess, 
Fuller,  Bertholdt,  Dereser,  Stuart. 

19  with  the  strength, —  Theodotion,  Luther,  Auth.  Ver.,  Geier,  Hit- 
zig, Kranichfeld,  Keil,  Zochler ;  against  the  strength — i.  e.  of  the 
Egyptian  kingdom, — Michaelis,  Hdvernick,  Lengerke,  Maurer,  Klie- 
foth,  Stuart. 

20  lit.  rights;  an  agreement  shall  be  made  with  him, — Septuagint, 
Be  Wette,  Hitzig,  Grdtz,  Fwald,  Zbckler,  Stuart,  Bertholdt,  Berescr, 
Lengerke;  and  upright  ones  shall  be  with  him,  and  he  shall  succeed, 
— Gesenius,  Wiyier,  Auth.  Ver.;  and  strong  ones  come  with  him, — 
Fuller;  and  uprightness  with  him, — Hdvernick,  Kranichfeld ;  with 
upright  intention  ;  and  he  shall  do  it, — Keil. 

21  to  destroy  it — i.  e.  the  kingdoin  of  Ptolemy, — Stuart,  Cheyne, 
Briver,  Ewald,  Grdtz,  Zockler  ;  to  destroy  her, — Michaelis,  Bertholdt, 
Bosenmiiller,  Keil,  Kranichfeld. 

22  it — i.  e.  his  plan, — Stuart,  Hitzig,  Pusey,  Zockler,  Fi'dler,  Len- 
gerke, 3Iaurer,  Cheyne,  Briver;  she, — Keil,  Fausset;  the  land, — Ewald. 

23  one  that  shall  cause  ...  to  pass  over, — so  Cheyne,  Briver,  Stuart, 
Zockler,  Matirer,  Keil. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  373 

of  the  kingdom;    but  in  few  days  he  shall   be   de- 
stroyed, but  not  in  anger,  nor  in  war. 

(21)  And  in  his  place  shall  stand  up  a  despised 
one,  to  whom  was  not  given  the  honor  of  the  king- 
dom; but  he  shall  come  unexpectedly,^*  and  obtain 
the  kingdom  by  dissimulations.  (22)  And  the  arms 
of  the  flood  shall  be  swept  from  before  him,  and 
shall  be  broken,  yea,  also  a  covenant  prince.^^  (23) 
And  from  the  making  of  the  covenant  with  him  he 
shall  do  deceitfully ;  and  he  shall  come  up  and  pre- 
vail with  a  small  people.  (24)  Unexpectedly  shall 
he  come  even  upon  the  rich  places  of  the  jirovince; 
and  he  shall  do  what  his  fathers  have  not  done,  nor 
his  fathers'  fathers;  he  shall  scatter  among  them  prey, 
and  spoil,  and  riches ;  and  he  shall  forecast  his  devices 
against  strongholds,  and  that  for  a  time.  (25)  And 
he  shall  stir  up  his  power  and  his  heart  against  the 
king  of  the  south  with  a  great  army;  and  the  king 
of  the  south  shall  be  stirred  up  to  war  with  a  very 
great  and  mighty  army;  but  he  shall  not  stand; 
for  they  shall  forecast  devices  against  him.  (26)  And 
they  who  eat  of  his  dainties  shall  destroy  him,  and 
his  army  shall  overflow;  and  many  shall  fall  down 
slain.  (27)  And  both  these  kings'  hearts  are  unto 
evil ;  and  at  one  table  shall  they  speak  lies.  But  it 
will  not  succeed,  for  yet  the  end  shall  be  at  the  time 
appointed.  (28)  And  he  shall  return  to  his  land 
with  great  riches ;  and  his  heart  shall  be  against  the 

2*  unexpectedly,  —  Gesenius,  Lengerke,  Cheyne,  Driver,  Keil, 
Zockler. 

25  covenant  prince — i.  e.  a  prince  in  league  with  bini, — Ilengsten- 
berg,  Ewald,  Cheyne,  Driver,  Stuart.. 


374  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON 

holy  covenant;  and  he  shall  do/^  and  return  to  his 
own  land. 

(29)  At  the  time  appointed  he  shall  return  and 
come  toward  the  south ;  but  not  as  the  former  shall 
the  latter  be.  (30)  For  ships  of  Chittim^'^  shall  come 
against  him  ;  and  he  shall  be  discouraged,  and  return, 
and  rage  against  the  holy  covenant ;  and  he  shall  ac- 
complish it;  and  he  shall  return  and  have  an  under- 
standing with  those  who  forsake  the  holy  covenant. 
(31)  And  arms  shall  arise  at  his  command,^^  and  they 
shall  pollute  the  sanctuary,  the  fortress,^  and  shall 
take  away  the  daily  service,  and  they  shall  set  up  the 
abomination  that  maketh  desolate.'^'^  (32)  And  those 
who  do  wickedly  against  the  covenant  shall  he  cor- 
rupt by  dissimulations ;  but  the  people  who  know 
their  God  shall  become  strong,  and  do  it.  (33)  And 
they  that  be  wise  among  the  people  shall  instruct 
the  many ;  and  they  shall  fall  by  the  sword,  and  by 
flame,  by  captivity,  and  by  spoil,  for  days.  (34) 
And  when  they  shall  fall,  they  shall  obtain  a  little 
help;  and  many  shall  cleave  to  them  with  deceits. 
(35)  And  some  of  them  that  be  wise  shall  fall,  to 
try  them,  and  to  purify  and  to  make  them  white,  to 
the  time  of  the  end;  because  it  is  yet  for  the  time 
appointed.] 

(36)  And  the  king  shall  do  according  to  his  will;  and 

-<>  do — i.  e.  carry  out  his  purpose, — Hitzig,  Herzfeld,  Zockler,  Keil, 
Stuart. 
^■^  Chittim — i.  e.  Cyprus. 
28  his  command — lit.  from  him. 

2^  the  fortress, — Stuai't,  Cheyne,  Driver,  Keil,  Zockler. 
3''  horrible  abomination, — Hitzig,  Herzfeld,  Ewald. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  375 

he  will  exalt  himself  and  magnify  himself  above  every 
god;  and  he  will  speak  marvellous  things^'  against 
the  God  of  gods,  and  he  will  prosper  until  the  indig- 
nation be  accomplished  ,•  for  what  is  determined  shall 
be  done.  (37)  Neither  will  he  regard  the  God"^^  of  his 
fathers,  nor  the  desire  of  women,  nor  will  he  regard 
any  god  ;  for  he  will  magnify  himself  above  all.  (38) 
But  in  his  place "^^  will  he  honor  the  god  of  fortresses  ;"^^ 
and  a  god  whom  his  fathers  knew  not  will  he  honor 
with  gold  and  silver,  and  with  precious  stones  and 
pleasant  things.  (39)  And  he  shall  do^  to  the  strong 
fortresses  with^  a  strange  god;  whoso ^^  shall  acknow- 
ledge him,  he  will  increase  with  honor,  and  he  will 
cause  them  to  rule  over  the  many,  and  he  will  divide 
the  land  as  a  reward .^^ 

(40)  And  at  the  time  of  the  end  the  king  of  the 
south  shall  push  at  him  ;  and  the  king  of  the  north 
shall  storm  against  him,  with  chariot,  and  with  horse- 
men, and  with  many  ships;  and  he  shall  enter  into  the 
countries  and  shall  overflow  and  pass  over.     (41)  And 

31  marvellous  things,  or,  wonderfully. 

32  God,  or  gods, — Hitzig,  Herzfeld,  Z'dckler,  Keil,  Stuart. 

33  in  iijg  place, — so  Gesenius,  De  Wette,  Kliefoth,  Keil,  Luther, 
Kr anichf eld,  Fuller  ;  on  his  pedestal, — H'dvernick,  Lcngerke,  Mau- 
rer,  Hitzig,  Ewald,  Stuart,  Zockler,  Bertholdt. 

3*  fortresses, — so  Grotius,  3Iichaelis,  Gesenius,  Hdvernick,  Lengerke, 
Maurer,  Ewald,  Hitzig,  Stuart,  Kliefoth,  Keil,  Zikkler,  Cheyne,  Dri- 
ver; Mauzzim,  a  proper  name, —  Theodotion,  Vulgate,  Lxither. 

35  do — i.  e.  his  will, — so  Keil,  Stuart. 

3<>  with — /.  e.  the  help  of, — so  Keil,  Kranichfeld,  De  Wette. 

37  whoso  shall  acknowledge  him,  he  will, — ho  Keil,  Stuai't,  Cheyne, 
Driver,  Zockler. 

38  as  a  reward,— so  Keil,  Maurer,  Kliefoth,  Stuart,  Cheyne,  Driver, 
Zockler. 


376  VOICES  FROM  BABYLON. 

he  shall  enter  into  the  glorious  land,  and  many  shall 
fall ;  but  these  shall  escape  out  of  his  hand,  Edom  and 
Moab,  and  the  (;hief  of  the  sons  of  Amnion.  (42) 
And  he^shall  stretch  forth  his  hand  upon  the  coun- 
tries ;  and  the  land  of  Egypt  shall  not  escape.  (43) 
And  he  shall  rule  over  the  treasures  of  gold  and  of 
silver,  and  over  all  the  precious  things  of  Egypt ;  and 
the  Libyans  and  the  Cushites  shall  be  in  his  steps. 
(44)  And  rumors  out  of  the  east  and  out  of  the 
north  shall  trouble  him ;  and  he  shall  go  forth  in 
great  fury  to  destroy  and  utterly  to  make  away 
many.  (45)  And  he  shall  plant  the  tents  of  his 
palace  between  the  seas  and  the  glorious  holy  moun- 
tain ;  and  he  shall  come  to  his  end,  and  none  shall 
help  him.  (CHAPTER  XII.)  (1)  And  at  that  time 
shall  Michael  stand  up,  the  great  prince,  who  standeth 
for  the  sons  of  thy  people ;  and  there  shall  be  a  time 
of  distress,  such  as  never  was  since  there  was  a  nation 
to  that  time;  and  at  that  time  thy  people  shall  be  de- 
livered, every  one  that  is  found  written  in  the  book. 
(2)  And  many^  of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the 
earth  shall  awake,  these  to  everlasting  life,  and  these 
to  shame,  to  everlasting  abhorrence.  (3)  And  they 
that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firma- 
ment ;  antl  they  that  turn  the  many  to  righteousness, 
as  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever. 

(4)  But  thou,   O  Daniel,  shut   up  the   words,  and 
seal  the  book,  to  the  time  of  the  end  ;    many  shall 

1  many — i.  c.  Jiot  all  {the  first  resurrection), — Saadiah,  Aben  Ezra, 
Tregelles,  Bush,  Bertholdt,  Kranichfeld,  Fuller,  Kostlin,  Fansset; 
all  {general resurrection), — Hdvernick,  Ilofmann,  Anberlen,  Zundel, 
Kliefoth,  Zockler. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  377 

examine  it,  and  the  knowledge^  shall  be  increased. 
(5)  And  I,  Daniel,  looked,  and  behold  there  stooil 
two  others,  one  on  this  bank  of  the  river,  and  the 
other  on  that  bank  of  the  river.  (G)  And  one  said 
to  the  man  clothed  in  linen,  who  was  over  the  waters 
of  the  river,  How  long  is  the  end  of  the  wonders?  (7) 
And  I  heard  the  man  clothed  in  linen,  who  was  over 
the  waters  of  the  river;  and  he  lifted  up  his  right 
hand  and  his  left  hand  to  heaven,  and  swore  by  Him 
that  liveth  for  ever,  that  for  a  time,  times  and  an  half; 
and  when  he  shall  have  ceased  to  scatter  a  part  of  the 
holy  people,  all  these  things  shall  be  fulfilled.  (8)  And 
I  heard,  but  I  understood  not ;  and  I  said.  My  lord, 
what  is  the  end  of  these  things?  (9)  And  he  said. 
Go  thy  way,  Daniel,  for  the  words  are  closed  U])  and 
sealed  till  the  time  of  the  end.  (10)  Many  shall  be 
purified,  and  made  white,  and  tried ;  but  the  wicked 
shall  do  wickedly;  and  none  of  the  wicked  will  un- 
derstand, but  they  that  are  wise  will  understand.  (11) 
And  from  the  time  when  the  daily  service  shall  be 
taken  away,  and  an  abomination  that  maketh  desolate 
set  up,  there  shall  be  a  thousand  two  hundred  and 
ninety  days.  (12)  Blessed  is  he  that  waiteth  and 
Cometh  to  a  thousand  three  hundred  and  five  and 
thirty  days.  (13)  But  go  thou  thy  way  unto  the 
end,  and  thou  shalt  rest,  and  rise  u}:*  to  thy  lot  at 
the  end  of  the  days. 

2  knowledge— -?'.  e.  of  it,  of  this  prophecy,— i?</Aer,  Loicth,  Gill, 
Stuart,  Zockler,  Wintle,  Keil,  Fausset,  Words^vorth,  De  Wette,  Tre- 
gelles,    Van  Ess,   Vatican  Text. 


LIST  OF  AUTHORS. 


In  addition  to  the  various  ancient  versions  of  the  Book  of 
Daniel,  the  following  are  the  names  of  authors,  volumes  and 
articles  more  or  less  consulted  and  used  in  the  preparation 
of  this  book,  particularly  in  the  revision  of  the  translation, 
as  referred  to  in  the  foot-notes  to  the  revised  text,  as  also  in 
the  Lectures  themselves : — 


Alexander,  art.  "  Canon,"  Kitto's 
Bibl.  Cyclo. 

Allin,  Israel's  Restoration,  London, 
1855. 

Allioli,  Die  Heilige  Schri/t,  mit 
der  Vutgata,  3d  ed.,  Regens- 
burg,  1865, 

Ante-Nicene  Christian  Library,  26 
vols.,  Edinburgh. 

Armageddon,  3  vols.,  London,  1858. 

Auberlen,  The  Prophecies  of  Dan- 
iel and  the  Revelations  of  St.  John, 
New  York,  1857. 

Augustine,  Aurelius,  Works,  14 
vols.,  Edinburgh. 

Ay  re,  Introduction  to  Old  Testa- 
ment, vol.  ii.  of  Home's  Introd., 
eleventh  ed.,  London,  1863. 

Barnes,  JVotes  on  the  Book  of  Dan- 
iel, New  York,  1856. 

Ben-Ezra,  The  Coming  of  Messiah 
(Irving),  2  vols.,  London,  1827. 

Berg,  The  Stone  and  the  Image, 
Philadelphia,  1856. 

lierlcnhurger  Bibel,  4  vols.,  1726. 


Bertholdt,  Daniel  axis   dem   Heb.- 

Aram,  neti  Ubersetzt  und  erkl'drt, 

2  vols.,  Erlangen,  1806,  1808. 
Bickersteth,   Works,  16  vols.,  Lon- 
don, 1853. 
Bii'ks,  The    Two  Later  Visions  of 

Daniel,  London,  1846. 
Bleek,  An  Introduction  to  the    Old 

Testament,  2  vols.,  London,  1875. 
Bloomsbury      Lectures,     12     vols., 

London. 
Bosanquet,     Messiah     the    Prince, 

London,  1869. 
Bottcher,   Aus/Uhrliches   Lehrbuch 

der  Heb.  Sprache,  Leipzig,  1866- 

68. 
Boyle,  The  Inspiration  of  the  Book 

of  Daniel,  London,  1863. 
Brooks,  The  History  of  the  Hebrew 

Nation,  London,  1841. 
Browne,   Ordo  Sseclorum,  London, 

1844. 
Biinsen,  The  Chronology  of  the  Bible 

(Sayce),  London,  1874. 
Cheyne.    The    Holy    Bible,    edited 

379 


380 


LIST  OF  AUTHORS. 


with.     Various     Renderings    and 

Readings,  London,  1876. 
Cheyne,  art.  "  Daniel,"  Ency.  Brit., 

ninth  ed. 
Cowles,   Ezehiel  and  Daniel,  loith 

Notes,  New  York,  1867. 
Gumming,  Lectures  on  the  Book  of 

Daniel,  1854. 
Daniel's     Great    Period,    London, 

1844. 
Davidson,  A.  B.,  An  Introductory 

Hebrew  Grammar,  second  edition, 

Edinburgh,  1876. 
Davidson,  J.,  Discourses  on  Pro2jh- 

ecy,  London,  1875. 
Davidson,  S.,  art.  ''  Canon,"  Ency. 

Brit.,  ninth  fjdition. 
Introduction  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, vol.  ii.  of  Home's  Introd., 

tenth  ed.,  London. 
Davies,    A     Compendious    Hebrew 

and    Ghaldee   Lexicon,    London, 

1872. 

Revised  English  Bible,  Lon- 
don, 1877. 

Delitzsch,  F.,  art.  "  Daniel,"  Her- 
zog's  Ency.  In  both  editions 
(separate  articles). 

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INDEX. 


Abed-nego,  name  given  to  Azariab, 
21 ;  meaning  of,  21 ;  trial  of  faith 
of,  107-110;  cast  into  furnace  of 
fire,  111-113. 
Advent,  second,  of  Christ,  the  time 
when  the  kingdom  of  stone  shall 
be  set  up,  89-95  ;  a  personal  and 
literal  coming,  201-205  ;  signs  of 
nearness  of,  297-302. 
Afflictions,  good  effects  of,  132, 133  ; 
accompany   saintship,  178,179; 
do  not  always  work   righteous- 
ness, 311,  312. 
Alexander    the    Great,    conquests 
of,  61,  62,  190;  kingdom  of,  the 
third   empire,  61,    62,  190,   212, 
273 ;    spares  Jerusalem,  212. 
Angels,  the  doctrine  of,  269  ;  min- 
istrations of,  276,  277,  315. 
Antichrist,  the  eleventh  horn,  195  : 
time  of  appearance  of,  220,  221, 
252,  253,  286;    is    yet    to    come, 
279-283 ;  teaching  of  the  apos- 
tles, 280-282 ;  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment,   282-284;     belief    of    the 
Church  Fathers,  284,  285;   Lu- 
ther on,  285  :  Kliefoth  on,  285 
an   individual   person,  287-289 
spirit    of,    224,     225,    291-297 
spirit  of,  now  abroad,  297-320 
description    of,    221,    222,    253, 
283,    289,   293:    descriptions    of 
times     of,     307-311  ;     and     the 
Jews,  308,  310;    a  time  of  res- 
urrections,   317-320;     reign    of, 
196,    279-281;     destruction     of, 
197. 
Antiochus     Epiphanes,    215,    275; 
infamous     deeds    of,    215,    216; 

25 


end    of,    218;     spirit    of    times 
of,  223,  275. 
Apocalypse,  the,  313. 
Apostasy  the  forerunner  of  Anti- 
christ, 222-225 ;  a  mark  of  An- 
tichrist, 295,  296. 
Artaxerxes,   189;    issues  edict  for 
rebuilding    of    Jerusalem,    245, 
246. 
Auberlen,  referred  to,  270. 
Augustine,     quoted,    4;    view    of, 

concerning   Antichrist,  285. 
Azariab,    meaning    of    name,    20, 
21. 

B. 
Babylon,    meaning   of    name,    3 ; 
early     foundation     of    kingdom 
of,  35 ;   tower  of,  35  ;  early  his- 
tory of,  recently  discovered,  36 ; 
greatness    of    kingdom,    37-39; 
splendor  of  the  city  in  the  time 
of  Nebuchadnezzar,  39,  40,  123 ; 
wise  men  of,  44 ;  empire  of,  un- 
der   Nebuchadnezzar,    the    first 
kingdom,  59,  60,  188  ;  last  kings 
of,    before     Medo-Persian    con- 
quest, 139,  140. 
Bacon,  quoted,  219. 
Barnabas,  view  of,  concerning  An- 
tichrist, 284. 
Barnes,  Albert,  quoted,  80. 
Beast,  first,  second,  third,  fourth. 

Cf.  Kingdom. 
Bel  and  the  Dragon,  257. 
Believers  shall  reign  as  kings  on 
earth,  203-205  ;  must  beware  of 
the  spirit  of  Antichrist,  224-227; 
blessedness  of,  in   heaven,  324- 
326. 
Belshazzar,  last  king  of    Babylon 

385 


386 


INDEX. 


before  Medo-Persian  conquest, 
139,  140 ;  character  of,  140,  141 ; 
feast  of,  141-144 ;  commands  the 
sacred  vessels  to  be  brought  in, 
145 ;  sees  handwriting  on  wall, 
146;  sends  for  wise  men,  147  j 
advised  by  queen- mother,  148, 
149 ;  hears  Daniel's  interpreta- 
tion, 150-152;  end  of,  152-155. 
Belteshazzar,  the   name   given    to 

Daniel,  20  ;  meaning  of,  20. 
Berg,  Dr.,  quoted,  79. 
Bible,  quoted. 

Gen.  X.  8-10,  35; 

Num.  xii.  6,  56; 

Ps.  ii.,  197; 

Job  xxxiii.  15-17,  55  ; 

Isa.  viii.  14,  15,  88 ; 
ix.  6,  7,  93 ; 

Jer.  xxvii.  5-8,  38  ; 

Ezek.  xxxvii.  21-28,  316; 

Zech.  xiv.,  297; 

Mai.  iv.  1,  89  ; 

Luke  ii.  26-33,  93; 

xvii.  34-37,  21; 

Rom.  xiii,  1,  57  : 

1  Thess.  iv.  13-18,  320; 

V.  3,  202 ; 

2  Thess.  ii.  3-12,  281 ; 

ii.  8,  297; 
ii.  8-10,  197 ; 
Heb.  X.  36,  202 ; 

1  John  ii.  18,  22,  280  ; 

iv.  3,  280 ; 

2  John  vii.,  280 ; 
Rev.  xi.  15,  93; 

xiii.,  281,  282; 
xix.,  197. 

,  value  of,  50,  51 ;  divisions  of, 

into   chapters    and   verses,  303, 
304. 
Bosanquet,   views   of,   referred  to, 

258. 
Browne,  Dr.,  on  insanity  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, 132. 

o. 

Calumny,  164. 
Cambyses,  270. 

Ca})ital,  true  meaning  of,  31 ;  what 

kind  the  true  man  needs,  31,  32. 

Christ  the  Stone,  87,  90 ;  to  the  na- 


tion of  Israel  a  stone  of  stumb- 
ling, 87,  88;  to  the  Church  a 
living  stone,  88 ;  power  of,  as 
the  grinding  stone,  realized  at 
second  coming,  89-95  ;  reign  of, 
199,  200;  coming  of,  literal  and 
personal,  201-205;  time  of  set- 
ting up  of  kingdom  of,  202,  203. 
Cf.  Messiah. 

Christianity  as  now  in  the  world, 
84;  not  the  stone  kingdom,  85, 
86. 

Christians  must  be  faithful  in  small 
things,  25,  26.     Cf.  Believers. 

Chronology,  246,  247. 

Church,  the,  90-92,  205. 

Cicero  on  the  power  of  Rome,  64. 

Confession  of  sin,  235,  236. 

Confusion  of  tongues,  35,  36. 

Conscience,  not  to  be  trifled  with, 
172. 

Consecration  to  God,  value  of  early, 
179,  180. 

Consummation,  the,  251,  303,  fif. 

Contests  with  spiritual  powers,  269, 
270. 

Counsels  to  young  men,  29-33. 

Cowardice,  moral,  146,  147. 

Criticism,  adverse,  of  Book  of 
Daniel,  16,  17,  259-261;  source 
of,  18;  object  of,  262; 

,  grammatico-historical,  neces- 
sary for  understanding  the  word 
of  God,   7. 

Cyrus,  conquests  of,  60,  61 ;  issues 
edict  for  rebuilding  of  temple, 
245. 

D. 

Daniel,  meaning  of  the  name,  3, 
20;  in  the  royal  college,  15-33; 
three  of  the  name,  18 ;  descent 
of,  19;  captivity  of,  19;  wisdom 
■of,  19,  20;  receives  a  new  name, 
20  ;  trial  of,  in  the  bounty  of  the 
king,  24-26  ;  life  of,  an  embodied 
epic  of  faith  and  greatness,  26, 
180-182  ;  an  illustrious  example 
for  young  men,  26-33,180;  offers 
to  interpret  the  king's  dream, 
53  ;  unites  with  his  three  friends 
in  prayer  unto  God,  54 ;  song 
of  thanksgiving   for   answer  to 


INDEX. 


387 


prayer,  57,  58 ;  interprets  the 
dream,  59-64;  interprets  the 
second  dream,  120,  121;  is  sum- 
moned before  Belshazzar,  150  ; 
interprets  handwriting  on  wall, 
152;  selected  as  chief  of  presi- 
dents by  Darius  the  Median, 
162,  163;  on  account  of  his  in- 
tegrity is  watched  by  his  ene- 
mies, 163-168;  plot  laid  against 
life  of,  169-172  ;  faith  of,  tested, 
173-175  ;  is  cast  into  lions'  den, 
176;  vision  of  the  four  beasts, 
184-187  ;  second  vision,  206,  flf.; 
prayer  of,  232-236  ;  a  student  of 
prophecy;  233;  vision  by  the 
Hiddekel,  265 ;  efiect  of  vision 
on,  266 ;  is  commanded  to  seal 
the  prophecy,  303-307. 

Daniel,  Book  of,  15;  importance 
of,  4;  study  of,  has  been  ne- 
glected, 17;  method  of  treat- 
ment in  modern  times,  6;  critics 
on,  16,  257-260;  Wordsworth 
on,  16 ;  Bishop  Newton  on,  17  ; 
importance  of  the  study  of,  4, 
15,  16;  source  of  adverse  crit- 
icism of,  18;  time  of  compo- 
sition of,  70,  71;  main  divisions 
of,  183  ;  genuineness  of,  257-260  ; 
critical  discussion  of  particular 
passages  of,  260-265 ;  revised 
translation  of,  331,  seq. 

Darius,  king  of  Persia,  270 ;  ar- 
mies of,  189. 

Darius  the  Median,  162;  selects 
Daniel  as  chief  adviser,  162, 
163:  accepts  to  be  worshipped 
as  a  god,  170,  171 ;  issues  the 
decree  desired  by  the  enemies 
of  Daniel,  171,  172;  attempts 
to  deliver  Daniel,  175,  176;  pun- 
ishes the  enemies  of  Daniel,  177. 

Death,  not  terrible  to  a  good  man, 
174;  reign  of,  320,  321. 

Deluge,  date  of,  34,  35. 

Depravity  of  man,  illustration  of, 
169. 

Devotion,  signs  of  true,  180-182. 

Dreams,  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  41, 
42,  55,  117-120;  interpretation 
of,  59-64,  66,  74-79,  122;  a 
mode  in  which  God  has  reveal- 


ed   himself,    65,    56;    are    they 
still  a  mode  of  revelation?  56. 

E. 

Early  instruction,  importance  of, 

22,  23. 
Empire,  vision  of,  34-51. 
Euphrates  and  Tigris,  regions  of, 

rich  in  Biblical  associations,  34. 
Evil,  will  increase,  198. 
Exegesis,  true  method  of,  6-8. 


Faith,  power  of,  174. 
Firmament,  the,  a  symbol  of  glory, 
323,  324. 

G. 

Gabriel,  236,  237. 

Galgacus  on  the  Romans,  63,  64. 

Gibbon,  Edward,  skeptical  views 
of,  referred  to,  18;  quoted,  64. 

Gill,  Dr.,  quoted,  100. 

Goat,  kingdom  of  the,  212-214. 

God.  Cf.  Practical  Thoughts.  To 
be  obeyed  rather  than  man,  181 ; 
a  jealous  God,  126,  127;  weighs 
the  actions  of  men,  153,  flf.;  a 
vision  of,  185,  186 ;  mercy  of, 
to  us  in  the  giving  of  revela- 
tions, 266,  267;  wills  all  to  be 
saved,  328. 

Government,  is  of  God,  57 ;  forms 
of,  65 ;  as  now  on  earth,  66. 

Graeco-Macedonian  empire,  the 
third  kingdom,  61,  62,  190. 

H. 

Hananiah,  meaning  of  name,  20; 

receives  new  name,  20. 
Harmonies,  danger  of,  208. 
Heaven,  blessedness  of,  324-329. 
Hebrew   children,  Song  of  Three, 

257. 
Hengstenberg,  247. 
History,    how    shaped,     66-69 ; 

sketched   by  prophecy  from  the 

beginning,   70-72,   74. 
Horn,    eleventh,    not   the   papacy, 

194;  the  Antichrist  of  the   last 

days,  195. 


388 


INDEX. 


Horns,  ten,  of  fourth  beast,  193; 
not  confined  to  the  past,  193, 
194, •  refer  to  times  immediately 
preceding  the  judgment,  195. 

Human  nature,  always  the  same, 
311;  the  worship  of,  107-109; 
perverted,  125,  126,  169. 

Human  reason,  cannot  find  out  the 
things  of  God,  47-51. 


Idols,  meats  devoted  to,  forbidden, 
24. 

Ilgi,  36. 

Image,  golden,  erected  by  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, 99-102 ;  object  of 
its  erection,   100-104. 

Infidelities  of  last  days,  224,  225. 

Insanity  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  127- 
129,  132. 

Inspiration  a  reality,  69-73. 

Instruction,  importance  of  early, 
22,  23. 

Interpretation  of  the  Bible,  true 
science  of,  6-8. 

Irenaeus,  view  of,  concerning  Anti- 
christ, 284. 

Ismi-Dagou,  36. 

Israel,  fortunes  of,  239,  fif.;  to  be 
restored,  308,  309. 

J. 

Jerome,  view  of,  concerning  Anti- 
christ, 285. 

Jerusalem,  time  of  edict  for  the 
restoration  and  rebuilding  of, 
245-247 ;  destruction  of,  pre- 
dicted, 250,   251. 

Jews,  Alexander  and  the,  212, 
213 ;  apostasies  of,  in  the  time 
of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  222, 
233;  restoration  of,  308,  309; 
present  condition  of,  314,  315; 
future  prosperity  of,  314-316; 
ills  to  be  endured  yet,   316. 

Josephus,  referred  to,  20,  27,  70, 
112,  215,  219. 

Judgment,  visions  of,  185,  186; 
foretold,  196,  197. 

Jupiter  Olympus,  image  of,  placed 
in  the  temple  by  Antiochus 
Epiphanes,  223,  224. 


K. 

Kingdoms,  the  four  great,  62-73. 

the  first,  Babylonian,  59,  188. 

the  second,  Medo-Persian,  60, 
61,  188,  189  ;  description  of 
61,  189,211. 

the  third,  Grseco-Macedonian, 
61,  62,  190,  191;  the  four 
heads  of,  191,  214;  descrip- 
tion of,  62,  191,  212. 

the  fourth,  the  Roman  empire, 
62-64,  192,  193;  diversity 
of  opinion  respecting,  191 ; 
successive  to  the  others, 
191;  of  universal  dominion, 
191;  continues  to  the  day  of 
judgment,  64,  75-77,  192. 

the  final,  the  stone,  77-80 ;  a 
a  true  outward  dominion, 
77-79 ;  entirely  supernat- 
ural, 79,  80,  82 ;  supersedes 
all  human  dominions,  81, 
I  201,  202,   203;    abides  per- 

petually, 82 ;  not  the 
United  States,  83,  84;  not 
Christianity  in  its  present 
form,  85,  86 ;  established  at 
second  coming  of  Christ, 
89-95,  202,  203;  nature  of, 
92-93,  203,  204;  objections 
to  this  interpretation  an- 
swered, 93-95. 
Kings  worshipped  as  gods,  170. 
Kliefoth  on  Antichrist,  285. 


Lactantius,   view   of,    concerning 

Antichrist,  284,  285. 
Lacunza,  Emanuel,  quoted,  87. 
Law,  the  Roman,  still  governs  the 

world,  75,  76. 
Life,  the  key  to  a  right,  30,  31. 
Luther,  how  his  career  was  shaped, 

67,  68 ;  quoted,  220,  285. 

M. 

Maccabees,  Books  of,  216. 
Macedonian      empire,     190,     191, 

212-214. 
Magicians,  44. 

Man,  vanity  of,  137, 138,  277. 
Manhood,  43. 


INDEX. 


389 


Mauzzim,  god  of,  293,  294. 

Meditation,  importance  of,  42,  43. 

Medo-Persian  empire,  the  second 
kingdom,  60,  61,  188,  189;  de- 
scription of,  61,  189,  211.     . 

Meshach,  name  given  to  Mishael, 
20;  meaning  of,  20;  trial  of 
faith  of,  107-110;  cast  into 
furnace  of  fire,   111-113. 

Mesopotamia,  plain  of,  rich  in  Bib- 
lical associations,  34. 

Messiah.  Cf.  Christ.  Presenta- 
tion of,  as  King,  242-244 ;  time 
of  coming  of,  exactly  foretold, 
247,  248;  time  of  cutting  otf 
of,  248. 

Michael,  312 ;  his  standing  up  for 
Daniel's  people,  313,  314. 

Milton,  a  supposed  poem  of,  262, 
263. 

Miracles,  reasons  for  those  wrought 
in  Babylon,  112,  113. 

Mishael,  meaning  of  name,  20. 

Mountains,  80,  81. 

N. 

Nabopolassar,  the  father  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, 36,  37. 

Names,  importance  of  giving  suit- 
able, to  children,  21. 

Nature,  beauties  of,  323-325. 

Nebuchadnezzar,  19 ;  appoints  a 
daily  provision  of  meat  for 
Daniel  and  his  companions,  23; 
reigns  two  years  with  his  father, 
Nabopolassar,  36,  37 ;  time  of 
dream  recorded  in  Dan.  ii.,  37 ; 
conquests  of.  38,  39 ;  adorns  the 
city  of  Babylon,  39,  40,  123; 
first  dream  of,  41,  42,  55  ;  calls 
the  wise  men,  44,  45  ;  threatens 
to  punish  the  wise  men,  45-47, 
53  ;  nobility  of  character,  96,  97  ; 
erects  a  golden  image,  99-102  ; 
object  of  king  in  erecting  this 
image,  100-104;  rigid  decree 
of,  justifiable,  105,  100;  procla- 
mation of,  the  only  complete 
state  paper  come  down  from 
early  times,  116,  117  ;  prophetic 
forewarning  of,  117-122;  offence 
of,  122-126;  punishment  of,  126- 


130  ;  recovery  and  restoration  of, 
131-133  ;  greatness  of,  123,  124; 
insanity  of,  127-129,  132;  genu- 
ine repentance  of,  134. 

Newton,  Bishop,  quoted,  17,  227. 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  17. 

Nimrod,  fame  of,  35 ;  undertakes 
the  building  of  the  Tower  of 
Babel,  35. 

o. 

Office,  public,  responsibilities  of, 
154,  155  ;  dangers  of,  164,  165, 
167. 

Officer,  a  good,  167. 

Omens,  117,  118. 

Origen,  view  of,  concerning  Anti- 
christ, 284. 

Outcome,  the  final,  303-329. 


P. 

Papacy,  not  the  eleventh  horn, 
194. 

Persia,  Medo-,  188,  189,  211;  sue- 
cession  of  kings  of,  270-273 ; 
decrees  of  its  kings  touching 
the  restoration  of  the  Jews, 
245,  246. 

Pope,  the,  149 ;  blasphemous  honor- 
ing of,  171. 

Porphyr}^  on  Daniel,  261. 

Practical  remarks  :  Importance  of 
giving  names  to  children,  21  ; 
value  of  early  instruction,  22  ; 
Christians  must  be  faithful  in 
small  things,  25  ;  importance  of 
religious  principle,  27,30;  true 
religion  always  courteous  and 
modest,  28 ;  counsels  to  young 
men,  29-33  ;  the  caj)ital  neces- 
sary for  true  success,  31,  32; 
importance  of  reflection  and 
meditation,  42,  43 ;  our  know- 
ledge of  the  will  and  purposes 
of  (xod  depends  on  revelation, 
47-51;  Ood's  estimate  of  this 
world's  wisdom,  62 ;  God  rules 
in  history,  66-69;  inspiration  a 
reality,  69-73  ;  revelation  a  cer- 
tainty, 69-73 ;  shall  clergymen 
take  an  interest  in  legislation, 
98  ;  models  for  young  men,  109; 


390 


INDEX. 


some  over-devoted  people,  110  ; 
the  power  of  God,  112,  113; 
obey  God  before  man,  114 ;  the 
word  of  God  the  infallible  guide 
of  man,  118;  danger  of  great- 
ness and  wealth,  122  ;  proneness 
of  man  to  boast  of  his  works, 
125;  a  warning  to  pride  and 
self-glory,  136-138  ;  moral  cow- 
ardice, 146,  147 ;  God  notes  the 
actions  of  men,  153,  154;  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  high  office,  154, 
155  ;  sensuality,  155  ;  warnings 
of  Providence,  156  ;  profanation 
of  sacred  things,  157-160;  dan- 
gers of  public  office,  164,  165, 
167;  depravity  of  man,  illustra- 
tion of,  169  ;  power  of  faith,  174; 
a  righteous  God  rules  the  world, 
177,  178  ;  trials  must  come,  179  ; 
comfort  in,  205 ;  value  of  early 
consecration  to  God,  179,  180  ; 
signs  of  true  devotion,  180-182  ; 
God  has  given  us  warning  of 
wrath  to  come,  198,  199  ;  value 
of  the  repetition  of  truth,  207, 
208;  beware  of  the  spirit  of 
Antichrist,  224-227 ;  the  import- 
ance of  the  study  of  prophecy, 
228-230,  233  ;  value  of  prayer, 
54,  231,  232 ;  confession  of  sin, 
235,  236 ;  mercy  in  the  manner 
of  revelation,  267 ;  ministra- 
tions of  angels,  276 ;  the  true 
riches,  277 ;  wilfulness,  291  ; 
apostasy,  295,  296 ;  wickedness 
shall  increase,  311,312;  death, 
319,  320  ;  blessedness  of  heaven, 
323-326  ;  true  wisdom,  327,  328  ; 
this  life  a  life  of  probation,  328, 
329. 

Prayer,  value  of,  54,  180,  231,  232; 
of  Daniel,  234-236. 

Pride,  warning  against,  136-138. 

Principle,  devotion  to  religious, 
the  secret  of  success,  27,  28,  30. 

Principles,  300. 

Profanations  of  sacred  things,  157- 
160. 

Progress,  true  conceptions  of,  65. 

Prophecy,  importance  of  the  study 
of,  228-230,  233  ;  nature  of  219. 

Providence,  warnings  of,  156;  is  a 


reality,   177,  178 ;    mysteries  of, 

198. 
Ptolemy     Lagus     of    Egypt,    274, 

275. 
Pusey,  referred  to,  279. 

R. 

Eam,  kingdom  of,  211,  212. 
Rawlinsons,  the,  quoted,  124. 
Religion,    true,    always    courteous 

and    modest,    28 ;    what   it   will 

do   for  a  man,   167;    results   of 

despising,  295. 
Repetition,  value  of,  207,  208. 
Resurrection  of  the  body,  doctrine 

of,  known  to  the  Jews,  317 ;  two 

resurrections,  318. 
Revelation,  supernatural,  certainty 

of,  shown   by  the  fulfilment  of 

prophecy,  69-73 ;  costs  of,  267. 
Rewards,  eternal,  doctrine  of,  321,  ff. 
Ribs,  the  three,  countries  referred 

to  by,  189. 
Riches,  vanity  of  earthly,  277. 
Roman     empire,    the,     the    fourth 

kingdom,   62-64,    191-193;   still 

continues,  64,  75-77,  191-193. 


s. 

Saadiah,  Rabbi,  quoted,  318. 

Saints.  Cf.  Believers.  Transla- 
tion of,  320,  321;  souls  of  de- 
parted, 322. 

Salvation,  conditions  of,  327,  328. 

Science,  modern,  69,  70 ;  false  the- 
ories of,  297-300. 

Sealing,  of  prophecy,  241  ;  of  the 
Book  of  Daniel,  304-306. 

Seleucus  Nicator  of  Syria,  274, 
275. 

Self-exaltation,  a  characteristic  of 
Antichrist,  292,  293. 

Self-glory,  warning  against,  136- 
138. 

Sensuality,  155. 

Sermon,  a  splendid,  150-152. 

Seventy  weeks,  238,  ffi;  summary 
of  things  to  be  accomplished  in, 
240,  241 ;  description  of  periods 
included  in,  242-247. 

Shadrach,  name  given  to  Hanan- 
iah,  20;    meaning    of,  20;    trial 


INDEX. 


391 


of   faith   of,  107-110;    east  into 

furnace  of  fire,  111-113. 
Son  of  man.     Cf.  Christ. 
Stars,  the,   symbols  of  glory,  325, 

326. 
State,  value  of  religious  counsellors 

to,  98. 
Stone,  Christ  the,  87.     Cf.  Chrtst. 
Stone,  kingdom  of.     Cf.  Kingdom. 
Susanna,  History  of,  257. 

T. 

Temple  of  Jerusalem,  vessels  taken 
by  Nebuchadnezzar,  144,  145 ; 
profaned  by  Belshazzar,  145, 147; 
profaned  by  Antiochus  Epiph- 
anes,  215,  223,  224  ;  destroyed  by 
the  Romans,  250,  251;  to  be  re- 
built, 808. 

Tigris  and  Euphrates,  34. 

Tillinghast,  quoted,  77,  78. 

Time  must  condition  our  eternity, 
328. 

Times,  three  and  a  half,  310,  311. 

Tregelles,  referred  to,  247. 

Trials,  Christians  must  endure,  25; 
must  come,  179  ;  comfort  in,  205. 

Trouble,  time  of,  307-310,  316; 
how  some  are  kept  out  of  it, 
.320,  321. 

u. 

United  States,  not  the  kingdom 

of  stone,  83,  84. 
Urukh,  36. 
Ussher,  Archbishop,  247. 


Vision,    of    the   four   beasts,    184- 
187 ;    corresponds  to  Nebuchad- 


nezzar's dream,  187;  interpreta- 
tion of,  188,  ff. ;  second,  of  Dan- 
iel, 206,  ff.;  in  which  it  differs 
from  former,  209;  method  of  in- 
terpretation of,  210. 

w. 

Warnings,  God  holds  responsible 
for,  135,  136. 

Weeks,  the  seventy,  237,  ff. 

Wicked,  the,  still  worship,  293, 
294 ;  destiny  of,  323. 

Wickedness  shall  increase  to  the 
end  of  time,  311,312. 

Wilfulness,  a  characteristic  of  An- 
tichrist, 291. 

Wisdom  of  this  world,  incompe- 
tent to  find  out  the  things  of 
God,  47-50 ;  how  regarded  by 
God,  62. 

Wisdom,  true,  827,  328. 

Wise  men  of  Babylon,  44,  45  :  in- 
competency of,  45-47. 

Witnesses,  the  two,  of  the  last 
days,  313. 

Woman,  self-possession  of,  148, 
149. 

Wordsworth,  quoted,  16,  224-226. 


Xenophon,  quoted,  60,  142. 
Xerxes,  189,  271,  272. 


Young    men,   counsels    to,    29-83 ; 
models  for  all,  109. 


DATE  DUE 


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